How many of you have enjoyed a cheeseburger from the local Krystal on South Church Street here in Murfreesboro on a Sunday afternoon or late Saturday night?
I bet you didn’t know that, right behind that location, Murfreesboro had a fairgrounds that held several events over the years. It began in 1868 when some Northern investors bought 30 acres of the Alfred Miller estate. They built a fairground, enclosed with a plank fence. It contained a half-mile track for training horses and, later, harness racing.
They also built an amphitheater with a 150-foot show ring in a stadium with covered seating for several thousand people. In the back were stalls for the horses and offices. There was also an L-shaped building named Floral Hall.
There was an observatory in a smaller building that was used for dressing rooms and storage. There was a long line of stables for the livestock. The grounds had walkways and were well landscaped and the cost for all this was around $20,000.
This new facility was called the Tennessee Central, where the railroad tracks cross the turnpike. The railroad opened a new platform for passengers visiting the fairgrounds. In the first two years several stock, art and produce exhibitions were well attended. It looked to be profitable.
An early version of a Tennessee State Fair used the Rutherford fairgrounds in 1869.
Starting in 1890, harness races were the big draw. Additionally, competitions for the best in several hundred farm, homemaking, and skill categories all promised cash or merchandise to the winners. Cash rewards were typically $20.
The fairgrounds remained very active with all sorts of turn-of-the-century exhibitions, traveling shows, circuses and revivals of the day. The racetrack stayed busy during most of the year. Local entrepreneur G.B. Giltner operated a year-round horse training facility (offering shoeing, surgery and livestock dentistry) at the fairgrounds.
The RCFA (Rutherford County Fair Association) would struggle financially. In 1917 the association filed for bankruptcy. The fairground was court-ordered to sell at auction and it was purchased by five local businessmen (Henry King, J.W. Daniel, A.L. Todd, T.H. Harrison and Andrew Spain) for $6,000. Two years later it was sold to J.D. Hooper, who owned a property next door, for $5,000.
The RCFA reorganized and, in 1925, bought the 30-acre fairground plus an additional 50 acres from Hooper for $16,750. The fairgrounds were shut down during the Great Depression of 1929 and it didn’t reopen till 1934. The RCFA sold 12 acres for $5,500 to Rutherford County where a workhouse was built and today is the Rutherford County Juvenile Center.
There were great hopes for the fairgrounds in 1934. The Rutherford Courier reported a three-day fair that had a carnival with six riding devices, 10 side shows and 30 concessions. There were agricultural and domestic exhibits and competitions. Daytime harness racing and nighttime horse shows filled the arena.
Did you know . . . ? The county declared a holiday for all the schoolchildren so they could go enjoy the fair for a day. The 1934 fair was a huge success. There were also big plans for the 1935 fair. It had everything going for it, great attendance, and popularity; however, it was not a financial success. Even the year-round horse racing and other events at the property could not cover the expenses.
In August 1949 there was no county fair, but the fair-like Lions Club Exposition was the big event. The property owners at the time, Mrs. Wilson and Carroll, announced that the new Rutherford Raceway would host a three-day schedule of harness races in October.
In 1956, the estate of H. Wilson sold the fairgrounds property to Joe Werthan, a Nashville investor, for $31,500. A one-half acre tract, known as the Fairground Tavern Property, was excluded from the sale. Today the old fairground, still owned by Werthan interests, is mostly vacant. The Krystal restaurant and car wash stand on the former tavern property.
Did you know . . . ? Back in 1987, Rutherford County was one of several counties across Tennessee that were being considered for parimutuel gambling, which meant there was a possibility of horse racing coming back to Rutherford County. When the Tennessee General Assembly passed the Racing Control Act of 1987, allowing parimutuel gambling on horse races, it also set up the Tennessee State Racing Commission to issue track licenses and make sure people followed state law. There was a gentleman here in Murfreesboro by the name of Claude Cockrell who was hoping to bring horseracing to Rutherford County. It was frowned upon because some thought that gambling could bring some seedy criminals and seedy activity with it. Before it all panned out, Cockrell himself was indicted for some illegal activities and it never got off the ground.
On a personal note, back in the 1970s my grandfather Bill Wilson, who served as Rutherford County Road Superintendent, was in charge of the Rutherford County Workhouse mentioned above. I remember as a small child going to have breakfast at the workhouse with him, other jailers, and prisoners alike. Granddaddy kept his mules in a barn on the old fairground property, and I can remember vividly going with him and my brother, David Wilson, to check on those old mules. For some reason he always loved mules—I guess because they were hard workers and he was from Macon County.
(Some of this information comes from John Spence’s book Annals of Rutherford County (1870) and from Rutherford County Historian Greg Tucker.)
