ALTAMONT — A grand archway once marked the village entrance to the Altamont Fair from, appropriately enough, Grand Street.

Marie McMillen, the fair’s operations manager, would like to see that entryway rebuilt.

“It would be so great if someone would step up and re-create the old archway,” she said.

On either side of the gate were two Victorian buildings that still stand. As the 19^th Century turned to the 20th, they served as offices for the fair’s treasurer and secretary.

An old photograph from the early 1900s shows the buildings clearly labeled with a double archway between them. A sign proclaims, “Albany County Agricultural Society & Exposition,” topped by a peaked roof. Perched at the pinnacle is an eagle.

The two buildings, also with peaked roofs, and gingerbread trim, now house toilets and sinks, one building for each gender.

In recent years, the two buildings, which for decades had been plain white, were brought to life with a pallet of harmonious Victorian hues. Now, the fair is doing structural work on the buildings to preserve them.

“All the underpinnings have rotted,” said McMillen.  “We’ve had a carpenter working there for six weeks now.” Bill Gray has one building squared.

 “The iron gates look so ugly and bent now,” said McMillen. “They really look bad now that the building is squared.”

Asked about the cost of the restoration, McMillen said, “It’s $20,000 just for the underpinnings. Everybody knows that it costs $20,000 to do a bathroom and this has 10 toilets and three sinks.”

She went on, “If we can afford to have them both completed by this year’s fair, we will…The question is, when will we be able to complete both?”

Fair history

The first fair in Albany County, according to information provided by McMillen, was held in 1819 in the city of Albany, sponsored by the Albany Agricultural Society. The “Plough Boy’s Holiday” or the “Agricultural Jubilee” as it was known was then held sporadically for decades in various locations around the county.

The first fair in Altamont was held in September of 1893, where it has been held annually ever since. The net proceeds of the first fair totaled $884.13. The fair — now officially called the Albany, Schenectady and Greene County Agricultural Societies — serves three counties.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, railroads brought many visitors to the Altamont Fair, but most visitors still came by horse and buggy.  Grand Street was heavily rutted beneath the welcoming archway.

The original grandstand was in front of what is now the chicken building. “If you look at the walls, you can see where they pulled the benches out,” said McMillen.

The centerpiece of the fair was the Exposition Hall, built in 1896.

In 2005, the fair board undertook a massive campaign to upgrade the fairgrounds, spending about $600,000 in capital improvements.

“We’re on a mission,” McMillen said at the time, “to bring the fairgrounds back to being a beautiful spot under the great Helderbergs.”

The idea was to attract events, from weddings to car shows, in the off season. The fair is held for just one week in August each year.

Work was undertaken in 2005 to restore the Exposition Hall, currently known as the Fine Arts and Flower Building. McMillen called it “the gem of the fair.”

Vandals had broken some of its windows, and they were all replaced, including the grand Palladian window at the hall’s center. The roof was also replaced.

A second phase of restoration is planned, which includes installing new electric service and lights, and a new floor, McMillen said.

She went on to list some of the many recent upgrades to the 120-acre fairgrounds: replacing the cow barn, paving walkways to make the grounds accessible to those who use wheelchairs, upgrading the bathrooms by the Grove, and rehabbing the old Grange area into a cooking center.

More work, though, needs to be done, she said, including a new roof for the 1890s Building.

“Quite a few volunteers in the engine building are enthusiastic,” she said, “and are doing upgrades themselves.”

She hopes that the same kind of volunteer spirit and know-how may lead to a new archway to rival the historic one. “If someone wants to build a new entryway,” said McMillen, “that would be great.”