The Willimantic Fairgrounds, were built by the Willimantic Linen Company and it began sponsoring fairs in 1893. In  the years 1902 through 1913, sponsorship was taken over by “The Willimantic Horseshoe Park Agricultural Fair Association”. The fair was indeed an agricultural exhibition featuring produce exhibits and “works of art” . However, the fair also offered quilting competitions,  horse racing, ox, pony and horse “pulls, vaudeville shows, a “cattle competition, and an exhibition hall where local farmers could display their produce and benefit from the advice of professors attending from the nearby Connecticut Agricultural College. The fair of 1910 also featured athletic competitions, a wrestling match and a hot air balloon ascension.  Today’s photograph shows the preparations that ascension and parachute jump. On three different days, aeronauts “King” Kelly and Vincent Morris made an ascension and jump from a hot air balloon. On the third day’s jump, Morris gave the crowd a scare as the parachute almost landed in the Willimantic River.  While Morris landed on the riverbank, the parachute went into the water and, “ a large crowd rushed to the scene...It was feared the balloonist had been seriously injured and a small-sized panic was the result”. Following the balloon ascension, there was a motorcycle race, a trotter pace a wrestling match and, to close out the day, An “endurance race between a man and a horse. A crowd of over ten thousand attended that day. The fair was not immune to problems, however and in 1913, the last fair, a huge success was held. The Thread Company was not pleased with the illegal gambling that had been part of the trotter meets. ATCO banned the group from using the park and auctioned off much of the land and equipment and eventually revamped and reopened what was left of the fairgrounds and renamed it Recreation Park.

For questions or comments about this  week’s photo or article, please e-mail us at “threadcity@outlook.com”.

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