Delaware State Fair back in 1914

We’ve just been through the Delaware State Fair season which is also typically the hottest time of each summer. This photograph from 1914 shows the Delaware State Fair when it was held in New Castle County on the western edge of Wilmington. Its existence there dates back to the middle 1800s. Horse racing and eventually auto racing were a big part of the fair then and also when it moved to Harrington where the Kent-Sussex Fair had been held for years.

The site of the state fair shown in this photograph eventually gave way to a unique and carefully planned housing community known as Wawaset Park originally developed by the DuPont company as a community for its growing workforce after World War I when the company was in a time of rapid expansion.