The Great Barrington Fair was a 57-acre site on the floodplain of the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United ...

Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a New England town, town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Bot ...

that once hosted the longest continually operating fair in New England. The fair was incorporated in 1848, with area farmers exhibited livestock, fruits, vegetables and other items of interest. Horse racing was added on September 30, 1859. Attendance grew rapidly after

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

racing with

parimutuel betting Parimutuel betting, or pool betting, is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the ''house-take'', or ''vigorish'', are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among a ...

was added in September 1940. Like many rural tracks, interest declined over the years and the facility eventually closed in 1983. A

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

wrecked the large grandstand at the racetrack in 1995. It was rebuilt and improved and

on the horses resumed in 1997 but lasted only two years before the track closed permanently after the 1998 racing season. A New York City firm bought the site for $2.7 million in 2006 with the intention of building mixed-use facilities there, including a 100-room hotel. Those plans never materialized and the financiers foreclosed on the property in 2010. In 2012, the property was sold to Fairgrounds Realty LLC for $800,000 with plans for a recreation and

sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is agriculture, farming in sustainability, sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an ...

project.Is Great Barrington's farm-to-table idea field of dreams?, Berkshire Eagle, April 4, 2013
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References

External links

Great Barrington Fairgrounds Project
Defunct horse racing venues in Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-sports-venue-stub