Hemlock Fairground

Hemlock Fairground is a 35.6-acre district on level bottomland at the north end of a valley, about a mile from Hemlock Lake in Livingston County, New York. Its centerpiece is a half-mile oval racetrack laid out in 1870, beside a nine-bay timber-frame grandstand of the same year that has box stalls beneath its seating. Exhibition buildings stand in a cluster to the east, including the cross-planned 4-H Building of 1877, a Domestic/Exhibit Hall of 1920 and a Grange Hall from about the 1920s. Livestock barns, food stands and other later buildings are classed as noncontributing. The fairground is listed for its link to agriculture and to entertainment and recreation. Agricultural societies used fairs to spread information about new equipment and farming methods, and harness racing was a major attraction. The site still hosts an annual fair in July, the same use it has had historically.