The Texas State Fair began in Houston.
How did we let that one get away?
by Louis F. Aulbach
The state fair began informally as farmers and haulers who brought goods to Houston gathered in Henke's wagon yard north of the current site of Landry's Aquarium near Washington Avenue. Henry Henke provided a place for them to camp and exchange their produce for goods and supplies that they needed back on the farm. An informal fair was held on the north bank of Buffalo Bayou in the years after the Civil War until 1870 when John T. Brady organized the "state fair" of the Agricultural, Mechanical and Blood Stock Association of Texas.
The location of the state fair was on the north bank of Buffalo Bayou south of Washington Avenue. Today, the topography of the area has been changed by the channelization of the bayou between 1927 and 1929 that removed a long curve of the bayou below Preston Avenue. Washington Avenue also has been re-routed closer to the bayou and connected with Franklin Avenue. The original fair grounds would now be situated on the lanes of Franklin Avenue and the parking lot of the U. S. Post Office.
The fair association bought 1400 acres on the south side of town, in the modern Midtown area south of the Pierce Elevated, and moved the fair there in 1871.
The typical prize categories at the fair of 1872 included handicrafts of tanned sheep skins, leatherwork for saddles, moss mattresses, gentleman's pantaloons, coat and vest, as well as factory products such as jeans, osnabergs, cottonades, cotton knitting yarns, cotton tweed and sewing silk. Although several of the first place awards went to entries from around the state, many blue ribbons were awarded to local artisans and Houston area factories such as the Eureka Mills and the Houston City Mills.
In 1874, the state fair was apparently quite a large event. The City was buzzing with excitement as a large number of Indians came to the fair and camped near McGowen Street and Travis Street. The Indian wars were still active on the Texas frontier at this time, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn was still two years hence. Fortunately, it seems that their presence at the fair was mostly uneventful.
The state fair continued in Houston through 1878, but it was discontinued after that when interest in the event waned because of the economic depression of the late 1870's and a resurgence of yellow fever in 1879. A group of businessmen in Dallas organized the event in 1886, and Dallas has been the site of the State Fair ever since.
Besides the wagon yard, Henry Henke was involved in a number of other mercantile ventures, one of which was the wholesale grocery business. His partnership with Mr. Camille G. Pillot came to be called Henke and Pillot. When they entered the retail grocery market, the Henke and Pillot stores were a dominant grocery chain in Houston for decades and the business survived until 1956 when it was acquired by the Kroger Corporation. The branded stores remained into the 1960's and, if you have been around Houston long enough, you may remember them.