Maryland State Fair
- About
The nearly half-million visitors each year attest to what has become a favorite summer tradition – The 12 Best Days of Summer – The Maryland State Fair.
- History
- In 1878, after several unsuccessful attempts to establish an on-going fair at other locations around Baltimore, a group of Maryland businessmen operated a successful fair on a four-acre site in Lutherville, MD. Despite its success, the Lutherville Fair was short lived because an extension of the Northern Central Railway was constructed in the middle of the fairgrounds. Their success in Lutherville, however, gave the operators resolve to establish an annual fair, and in December 1878, they incorporated as The Agricultural Society of Baltimore County. The corporation leased a 37-acre plot of land on the York Turnpike on what was then known as "the Timonium Estate." The first Fair at its new home was held September 9-12, 1879. The Northern Central Railway, the cause of the closing of the Lutherville Fair, was now the primary source of transportation for fairgoers from Baltimore to the Timonium Fairgrounds during the rest of the century. Other fairgoers walked or rode horses, wagons, carriages, and carts to the fairgrounds using the Turnpike. If history is evidence, the Maryland State Fair will continue to grow, to change when necessary, to uphold tradition when possible, and to provide Marylanders with a place to play, learn, and make memories and friends.
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