McNear: Mendocino’s second annual Apple Fair in 1912 celebrated local agriculture

In October 1912, farmers and visitors gathered in Mendocino for the second annual Apple Fair. The fair was founded the previous year by the Farmers & Apple Growers Association, a newly organized group created to represent local farmers. Held in Odd Fellows Hall, the first fair, in 1911, was a three-day affair displaying farmers’ products, entertainment, and concessions.

The 1912 Fair was much larger. The Association commissioned the construction of Apple Hall, a 40- by 100-foot exhibition hall on the corner of Kasten and Little Lake streets. The four-day fair began on Wednesday, October 23 with a speech by Oakland editor Colonel John P. Irish. He spoke on agricultural and horticultural development, and the audience was so interested that his speech “proved all too short to suit his audience,” according to the Ukiah Republican Press. That evening a three-act play titled “The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown” was also held in Odd Fellows Hall, filling it to capacity.