The Kentucky State Fair has been an annual tradition for 120 years, but it wasn’t Louisville’s first flagship summer event.
Almost two decades before the first Kentucky State Fair, the neighborhood that is now Old Louisville was home to the Southern Exposition, a showcase of industry, art, and technology that took place annually in the 1880s.
The first Southern Expo was held in 1883 as a way to put Louisville, and the rest of the South, on the map when it came to industry and trade. The 100-day show was so successful it returned for each year through 1887.
Artists from around the world were featured in the Expo’s galleries — here’s an illustrated catalog of the 1884 gallery.
Photo courtesy ASC, UofL
It’s electric, boogie woogie woogie
The main two-story building that hosted the Exposition stood where St. James + Belgravia courts are today. It was over 500,000 sqft and contained interior courts, exhibits, vendors, and more — you could even mail a letter or get a haircut.
One of the biggest technological marvels featured at the Exposition was electric lighting. We take electric lights for granted today, but they were a sparkling new toy in the 1880s. Thomas Edison’s company — he lived in Louisville, by the way — manufactured 4,600 electric lamps to light the exhibition grounds + main building, making it the first successful nighttime exposition in the country.
Remind anyone of the Kentucky State Fair exhibition halls?
Photo courtesy ASC, UofL
Legacy
The final Southern Exposition was held in 1887, at which point the main building was torn down and the land subdivided into walking courts. Today, this area is home to the largest contiguous collection of Victorian homes in the United States.
Materials from the old Expo building were used to construct the Amphitheatre Auditorium at the corner of 4th and Hill Streets in 1889. When it was built, it was the second-largest stage in the United States, just behind the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
