Lake Ottosee at Chilhowee Park, circa 1915. (Alec Riedl Knoxville Postcard Collection/KHP.)
Now well past its 100th anniversary, the Tennessee Valley Fair, when it opens on September 5, continues its legacy as one of the most fun events on the fall calendar.
The spot where it all takes place, Chilhowee Park, looms large in the fair’s past. After the Civil War, Fernando Cortez Beaman, a dairy farmer from New York state, established a dairy farm here, which his wife ran while he taught at various schools. The couple dammed up several springs on the property to create what would become known as Beaman Lake.
Hackney carriages began to carry pleasure-seekers from downtown to this new park in 1887, but three years later Beaman changed the name to Lake Ottossee—it was said to be a Cherokee word meaning “unexcelled,” which have been a joke, but it was generally taken to mean, the “lake you aught to see.”
Luring Knoxville residents from downtown, where most of the soot and grime accumulated, the park became much more popular when streetcars came along in the 1890s. However, three significant cultural events changed Chilhowee Park forever. Large wooden, World’s Fair-like buildings were constructed for the Appalachian Expositions of 1910 and 1911, each with its own theme including local industry, the arts, and achievements by local Black people, while the grounds staged exotic performers and circus animals. The grander National Conservation Exposition of 1913 naturally focused on environmental themes, but it also featured acrobatic feats and daredevil motorcycle races.
The old Appalachian Exposition-era marble pavilion. (KHP.)
In the wake of these widely successful events, and the facilities that Chilhowee Park presented, local leaders and civic champions began to consider hosting a permanent state fair-type event here.
Knoxville would be much less than it is without contributions from the many enterprising immigrants who have settled here and realized big dreams. One was Khalil Barkoot from Syria, a traveling showman who settled here and obtained a long-term lease on Chilhowee Park and organized a couple of fall festivals beginning in 1914. Other leaders included furniture store magnate James Sterchi; Canadian Harcourt Morgan a UT professor of entomology and zoology (and later UT president); as well as local farmer, Hugh Faust; Moses Jacob, state veterinarian; and two automobile dealers, Claude Reeder and Frank Kerr.
The East Tennessee Division Fair opened early October 1916. As one reporter put it, “The lumbering of big freight wagons, the cackle of the hens, mooing of the cows, and neighing of horses…intermingled with the symphony of two bands, and made things hum…” Reportedly, 40,000 Knoxvillians showed up.
According to historian Stephen Ash in his 1985 book, Meet Me at the Fair!, you could also enjoy “Barkoot’s Great Carnival Company Midway, Carlo the High-Diving Dog, and the Three Dablas with their daring trapeze act”
It wouldn’t always be smooth sailing for fair organizers in those early years. In 1919, despite the fact it was billed as “The Most Gigantic Exhibition and Celebration ever held in the Entire Southeast: A Good Old Fashioned Fair,” city health officials closed the event briefly over concerns during the influenza epidemic that claimed 200 local lives that year.
In the 1920s, the fair expanded with amusement rides, now permanently added to Chilhowee Park, including a wooden rollercoaster. Temporary spectacles ranged from the “Saucer of Death,” featuring madcap motorcyclists, to the bizarre: “The Amazing Ritter: The “man who wrestles himself.”
Organizers hoped the fair would appeal to everyone, but during the Jim Crow era, although Black people were welcome and some did attend, they also held their own “Colored Department” fair after the main event. In the early days, Black people weren’t allowed in the permanent amusement park except on special days like August 8, known as Emancipation Day, but that changed later.
In the 1930s, the event became known as simply the Tennessee Valley Fair, and some old elements faded away. The main exposition-era building burned down in 1938. Construction of its replacement was supervised by veterinarian Moses Jacob, and what later became known as the Jacob Building was named for him.
The Midway, ca. 1970’s. (colorized, McClung Historical Collection)
Aside from all the fun, the agricultural displays and competitions have remained mainstays of the fair. But as times have changed, the women’s exhibitions, for example, that ran for several decades highlighting new trends in clothes and home décor, have been replaced by new favorites such as fine art competitions, flower shows, doll shows, and quilt shows. More energetic competitions include Lego-building and robotic tournaments.
Prize-winning agricultural display, 2019 (KHP.)
Livestock shows remain ever popular, including tractor pulls, rodeo shows, and Demolition Derbies that always attract huge crowds, as does the perennial midway with wild amusement rides, side-show attractions, and food booths. And, yes, the fair still often has performing dog shows!
The Homer Hamilton Theater was added in 1954 (named after a horse vet and supporter) and over the years has hosted concerts from all kinds of performers, including legendary rock and rollers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and also James Brown; as well as country-music stars Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. More recently, wide-ranging classic acts like REO Bandwagon, Joan Jett, and Vanilla Ice have performed there. This year’s shows feature rock group Styx and rapper Flo Rida performing on this historic stage.
And amid all the hoopla, Lake Ottosee is still there, albeit much smaller than it once was, and adjacent to it is the 1910 marble pavilion, built to accommodate brass bands, and still standing after 115 years.
The Midway in 2019. (Tennessee Valley Fair.)
Article by Jack Neely & Paul James
Originally published in West Knoxville Lifestyle
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