Photos Then & Now: The Interstate Fair

According to spokanecounty.org, the earliest Spokane fair, the Washington and Idaho Fair, was held at Corbin Park in 1886, when neither territory was a state. For a while in the 1890s, the fair was called the Spokane Fruit Fair and later, the Spokane Industrial Exposition. The first so-named Spokane Interstate Fair was held in 1901. There were no fairs in the early 1930s, during the depth of the Great Depression, or from 1945 through 1949. The fair was revived in the early 1950s on the current site at Havana and Broadway, prompting the 2011 fair to be called the 60th anniversary edition. It runs fron Sept. 9-18.

On the Web: Find more historical photos paired with present-day scenes at spokesman.com/then-and-now.

– Jesse Tinsley