A County Fair in a Hotel
"I have just returned from the Howard County fair at
Ellicott City, Md., ten miles from Baltimore up the picturesque gorge of the
Patapsco. Above tidewater the Patapsco
is a brawling mountain torrent that reminds one very much of the French Broad
below Asheville, N. C.
The town itself is unique and the fair was still
more so. No one would have deliberately
planned to put a town in such a situation.
The waterpower and the great flouring mills started it, and like Topsey,
it simply “growed." The main street occupies a ravine that runs to the
Patapsco, and on one side of the street the houses are built over the swift
stream that comes down this ravine, and on the other side they are built
against a wall of rock. In the hotel where I stopped [?Howard Hotel] I had a room on the fourth
floor, and on looking out the window I saw that the street in the rear was
fully a story above me still. From the main street the other streets seesaw to
and fro up the hills, and looking from below one wonders how the people ever
get to their homes. Some short-cuts are made for pedestrians by means of long
series of steps down the hills, but to reach the pretty houses on the hills one
has to drive more than twice the distance to any and much more than that to the
highest.
The county fair was also sui generis. I never saw one under the same conditions. The
managers took a large abandoned old hotel down near the railroad station, and
the show occupied every one of the four floors and the scores of rooms.
Ponies, coons, goats and dogs had the first floor.
On the second floor a series of rooms in one wing were taken up by the poultry,
and there was really a fine show of these both in numbers and quality. Barred
Plymouth Rocks predominated, and the trio that took the blue ribbon would, I
think, have taken it anywhere. All the leading breeds of chickens were
represented, and also the finest show of Pekin ducks I have even seen since
they were first introduced. Geese and turkeys escaped Thanksgiving to go to the
show, for it opened on Thanksgiving Day, and if the big Bronze gobblers could
have known it they should have been glad that their lot fell in pleasant
places.
The center of this [second] floor was occupied by a
lecture room, and the further wing by the corn show. The Maryland Experiment
Station had a room to itself in which was a display of corn varieties, all
plainly labeled. In a larger room was the corn for competition. There was as
usual the collection of the biggest ears the farmers could discover. The judges
went over with the score card, and every man who failed to get a ribbon swore
that his corn was a great deal better than the blue ribbon sample. In fact
there was nothing to show that seed taken from the samples that failed to pass
the score card would not when planted make more corn than the ears that did
pass. It was merely a trial of the biggest and best-shaped ears--only this and
nothing more. Some day the shows will stop this score-card folly and pay some
attention to the yield of corn made from the samples shown. Farmers have all
their lives been breeding for the biggest and finest ears, and how scorecard
selection is ever to advance the yield of corn per acre I cannot imagine. The
germination tests will be an important matter for farmers next spring, for I
noticed that all the corn shown was very green, and if corn in northern Maryland
is in such condition at this date, what must it be in the country further
north? Tests of ears by number, as has been shown by the various stations, are
well worth the attention of those who seek a perfect stand.
The other floors of the building in which this odd
fair was held contained the display of garden vegetables and the usual big
pumpkin, flanked by others of smaller size but better quality. There was an
unusually good display of apples for this off year. York imperials were there
in strong force and fine specimens. One grower had two plates marked “York
Imperial" and “Johnson's Fine Winter," and he tried hard to convince
me that they are distinct varieties, but I could not see that there were any
more differences than can be found on any tree of the same variety. York
Imperial is the true name and the other had better be dropped. The same man had
a reddish apple which he insisted was Jonathan. I wished that I had some real
Jonathans to show him, but there were none there. Grimes‘ Golden was out in
fine shape, and there were good specimens of Nickajack, Stayman and many
others.
Altogether the show was very creditable and the
rooms were crowded. But the stereopticon lectures were delivered under difficulties,
for people do not come to such places to sit and listen, but to look around and
chat, and I had to talk against all sorts of hideous noises.
The show was made
up entirely of products of Howard County; it will never have fair grounds and a
race track so long as the show remains at Ellicott City, for the country there
stands too much on edge for fair grounds and race track. But it shows that
these are not necessary for getting out a very creditable county display of
farm products, and the idea is well worth adopting elsewhere."
The Country Gentleman. Albany NY: Dec 19, 1907 "A county fair in a hotel" by W.F. Massey
The building had been owned by Andrew McLaughlin until the 1834 lottery, Thomas' Patapsco Hotel, Stewart's Hotel, Wilson Patapsco Hotel,
Ellicott City Times...and an ice warehouse until torn down and the new building made from the granite blocks.
More posts on the Patapsco Hotel HERE
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
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