Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
August 28, 1983
By Susie Dewey
Vigo County Historical Society
Visitors flocked to 1898 fair
The street fair of 1898 was neither the first nor the last such event in Terre Haute, but it was perhaps the climax of them all.
Sponsors and participants were afraid the weather might spoil the event, for it had rained several days before Oct. 10, 1898, the opening day of the fair.
The purposes of the city-wide event were clearly stated: to benefit tradesmen and to advertise the city. Proof of the success of the fair was the tremendous attendance. Five hundred people came from Crawfordsville alone. Large families and groups of neighbors from western Indiana thronged into the city.
Terre Haute was ready for the visitors. While there was no midway as such, there were 20 free shows between Third and Eighth Streets on Main (Wabash Avenue).
Officially titled “Street Fair and Peace Jubilee,” the fair was advertised as all free with no vulgarity. The board had raised $10,000 at $5 per subscription share. Guessing games and cake-walks awarded prizes. Professor Frolich dived 110 feet into a net located just east of Eighth Street.
Merchants decorated their storefronts for special themes. The A and P was a Chinese camp, Herz was a pagoda, and Baur’s drugstore displayed the latest camera and photograph equipment.
The Brazil Band played free concerts and 2,500 electric lamps blazed.
The high point of the fair was the floral parade on Wednesday, Oct. 12. Horses were groomed, vehicles decorated, and thousands of paper flowers were made. The Ladies of the Day Nursery made 250 roses in one day.
The parade formed at Strawberry Hill at 2:30. A tally-ho from Indianapolis was decorated with 5,000 roses. Fifty gentlemen on horseback escorted the queen. The parade proceeded from Sixth and Park north to Ohio; east to Ninth Street; north to Main Street; west to Seventh Street; north to Chestnut Street; west to Sixth Street; and returned to Park Street. Few modern parades equal such a route.
Elaborately decorated carriages were driven by Terre Haute matrons.
Although no vulgarity was the theme of the fair, newspaper accounts do say that some young men drove into town, “to see the couchie-couchie girls, pet the lions and eat buttered pop-corn.”
As families left Terre Haute, they often stopped to buy a souvenir of the great street fair of 1898. Popular, were small ruby wineglasses. Most had clear glass bases and stems. Some had ruby medallions in the pressed glass cups; others were pressed into intricate patterns. All were inscribed with the words, “Terre Haute Street Fair, 1989.”
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.