Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1908 — STATE FAIR BARN [ARTICLE]

STATE FAIR BARN

New Structure to Cost $,40000 Is Building at Indianapolis This Summer. WILL HOUSE SHOW HORSES Larger Than Livestock Pavilion and Has Modern Appointments for Horses and Vlsitora—Rebuilding Era Has Begun—New Cement Walks and Other Improvementa. The State Board of Agriculture is this summer building on the Indiana State Fair grounds a new barn for horses, which is to cost $40,000, the board meeting the cost of the structure. The contract provides for its completion by September 1, and it will be used for the first time during ’the week of the State Fair, which opens September 7. It is said to be the only show barn In the United States which is so arranged that all of the horses in the stalls may be seen by a visitor.

' The new barn is east of the livestock pavilion which was erected last year and is eighty feet away from it. It occupies ground on which stood several long sheds for show horses, these smaller bams having been taken to the east side of the grounds to shelter horses that are in training on the tracks. The bam that is building is 328 feet long and 204 feet wide, or 88 feet longer and four feet wider than the livestock pavilion. It will have capacity for 394 horses In stalls that are 5% by 10 feet Between the stalls will be aisles over 22 feet in width, so that large crowds of visitors may move with ease through the structure and see the blooded animals. Behind each stall will be a chain to protect visitors from the heels of the horses.

The building has been designed for the comfort of the horses, for the convenience of the men who take care of them, and at the same time enable visitors to see the livestock at any time. One of the rules of the Fair Is that all livestock. must at all times be in condition to be seen by visitors, and in the new barn It is thought that the rule will be more closely followed than ever. While it is to be a very large, one-story structure, the roof will be high, and the building will contain roomy lofts for feed, Dunks for hostlers, harness rooms and offices for the managers of the horse department. The roof is to be of saw-tooth pattern, and special attention will be given to ventilation and light will be brought in from the north. The roof proper will be of tile. In the barn will be housed all of the horses of the Fair except the trotters and pacers. In other years the show horses have been sheltered In many barns which had no conveniences for horses, caretakers or visitors. A twenty-foot cement walk will connect the horse barn with the livestock pavilion and should the weather be rainy, this walk will be covered with a canvas awning for the protection of the horses’ coats, that they may reach the pavilion in the best condition.

The show horse department of the Fair years ago began to more than fill the small barns allotted it. and when the Fair’s horse shows began to grow in public favor, it was found that a large structure that would permit the exhibition of horses while in their stalls was a necessity. French and American Percherons, Clydesdales, Shires, Belgians, draft and grade draft horses, and in the coach classes, hack neys and German coach horses in large numbers are shown at the Fair every autumn. AIT of the light harness animals, saddlers, high steppers, jumpers, ponies and mules will all have quarters in the new barn, and this department of the fair, including the contents of the arena, will be under the direction of David Wallace, member of the State Board from Indianapolis. The livestock pavilion and the horse barn mark the beginning of a rebuilding of the Indiana Fair on far more extensive lines than have been followed. These two structures represent an expenditure of about $150,000 The two buildings have been so located that a picturesque arrangement of other structures tn later years can be made. The State Board has it in mind to erect a building for machinery which will cover about five acres and in time hopes to put up a large and pretentious building for the women of Indiana. What is to develop into an extensive paving era has begun on the Fair grounds this summer. A cement walk It feet wide is being put down from the grandstand on the race-course .to the Art building, the walk passing the doors of the Administration building. The mile and half-mile tracks have been much improved, both having been recoiled and ditched along the inside and outside edges, which enables the tracks to dry quickly after a rain. A large quantity of earth nas been removed from the Infield of the mile track, so that a spectator watching the races from the grandstand may see a horse’s ankles all the way around the course. In the next few years the State Board expects to put up a large and pretentious woman’s building and a machinery pavilion of brick and steel, the pavilion to cover several acres, and to make many other Improvements.