DAYTON, Ohio — After 165 consecutive years of operation and many fewer years of searching for a replacement site, the Montgomery County Fair in Ohio will be leaving its 37-acre home on Main Street near downtown Dayton after this year.

 

It will be planted in the rural 130-acre Judge Arthur O. Fisher Park off Dayton-Liberty Road in Jefferson Township, roughly 10 miles away. The departing theme of this year’s fair, then, is “FAIRwell on Main.”

“We’ve been working nonstop searching for the perfect fit, not only for the municipality where the event center is located, but the entire region in general, and we’ve found it,” said Tim Terrill, vice president of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society.

The new fairgrounds will have “state-of-the-art structures available for a variety of entertainment activities, including 4-H programs,” the fair board stated in a press release. Commissioners approved the allocation of $2 million for the preservation of the historic roundhouse at the downtown location.

“The land at Fisher Park is virtually no cost to the Agricultural Society, which was a big deciding variable,” Terrill said. “This means existing resources can be devoted to structures fitting various needs. It will be a multi-use, multi-purpose, top-notch facility for our entire community.”

The Montgomery County Fair will take place downtown one last time this July 10-15, and then the groups must turn over the South Main Street land to University of Dayton and Premier Health by October of this year. The Agricultural Society will continue to use the 37-acre plot through the spring of 2018.

UD and Premier Health bought the fairgrounds land earlier this year in a $15 million deal. Fisher Park has baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts in place. “It’s great for the whole western part of the county,” said Commissioner Debbie Lieberman. “We had the (State Route) 35 connector years ago, with hopes that economic development would come, and that’s been slow to happen.

“This could be a great catalyst for growth. The trails are great, the park is wonderful and it will be a great site.”

 

Sites in Vandalia, Brookville and Huber Heights were scouted but ultimately were found to be unsuitable, or organizers ran into lukewarm reception. Trotwood also pushed to be a location for the fair, but the fair board did not pursue that option.

The fair in Dayton will find a new home, but will leave behind a history like no other fair in the state. A Dayton resident raised $15,000 in 1873 in hopes that the state fair would be staged in this city. Instead, the state fair went to Columbus.

So, Daytonians decided to hold their own fair and did so on Sept. 29, 1874. It was heralded as the Southern Ohio fair. 

 

Thousands showed up in 1885 to see the horse Goldsmith Maid, a famous animal called the “Queen of the Trotters.”

 

Goldsmith set a world record for that half-mile track. Orville and Wilbur Wright were honored before the old grandstands, which still stand to this day. Numerous U.S. presidents attended this county fair, as did astronauts and sports celebrities.