Michigan State Fair

Michigan State Fair is a Michigan historical marker in Detroit, Wayne County, dedicated 1958.

1120 W. State Fair, Detroit

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

America’s first state fair, conducted by the Michigan Agricultural Society with the support of the legislature and local citizens, was held in Detroit on September 25-27, 1849. About eight hundred dollars in premiums were awarded for those “articles, productions and improvements” that were “best calculated to promote the agricultural and household manufacturing interests of the state.” The site of this annual fair was often moved until 1905 when it was given a permanent home here at the fairgrounds.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1850 · Ohio (Cowperthwait, 1850) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1873 · (Map of Wayne County, Michigan) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
am012739 (American Geographical Society Library, UW-Milwaukee)

Map of the surveyed part of Michigan, 1853, covering the location of Michigan State Fair, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map of the surveyed part of Michigan, 1853, covering this location. Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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On the National Register nearby

Michigan State Fair Riding Coliseum, Dairy Cattle Building, and Agricultural Building290 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.