Main Street Fair History
The
following information about the Main Street Fair is drawn from the Chestnut
Hill Hospital Auxiliary scrapbooks, which included newspaper clippings
of articles and pictures, 1946-1987, from Philadelphia daily newspapers
and several area local newspapers; a scrapbook of newspaper clippings,
photos and invitation to Main Street Fair events owned by Dorothy Y. Sheffield,
who co-chaired events, and two Chestnut Hill Local articles (September
23,1982 and August 30,1990 issues) written by Madeleine M. Keehn, a former
Auxiliary board member and ‘Local’ reporter.
The beginning: In 1942, Mrs. Jay Cooke called a group of Chestnut Hill women together to discuss ways and means to enrich the CHH equipment fund. The first fair took place in 1943 at an empty American Stores building at Germantown Ave. & Bethlehem Pike; One hundred volunteers staffed nine tables decorated with a Pennsylvania Dutch theme. Prizes were donated and had been displayed in nearby shop windows prior to fair day. Springfield High School Band supplied music. Event was named “Main Street Fair” by Mrs. Benjamin Franklin Pepper. (Source: Chestnut Hill Local article, September 23, 1982, by Madeleine M. Keehn).
When: The fair took place annually from 1943 until 1989 at various locations on Wednesdays until 1977 when it began taking placing on Saturdays; 1977 was the year the fair was at Chestnut Hill College. Saturdays proved to be popular and later fairs also took place on Saturdays. (Source: Local, August 30, 1990 article)
Location: The fair moved to the Pennsylvania Railroad lot in Chestnut Hill (now SEPTA lot at Chestnut Hill West Station) on West Evergreen Ave. In 1946. It would remain there until 1962 when the Hill House apartment building was built on Evergreen Ave., and the fair relocated to the hospital grounds. It remained there until 1977 when it took place at Chestnut Hill College for one year. In 1978, plans called for no fair in the traditional sense, but booths already planned additional events such as spring and fall sale of books, old clothes and Opportunity Booth sale, flea market and golf tournament would continue. On July 30, it was announced that the MSF would take place on Germantown Ave. It took place on Germantown Ave. for two more years, returning to the hospital in 1981 for its remaining years. The relocation was due to the hospital’s construction schedule. Proceeds from the fair went towards the equipment fund for the hospital; some 1950s clippings say equipment fund of the new hospital wing. In 1955—the first year in which there are financial figures in the scrapbooks—the fair had a net profit of $53,000; it raised as much as $86,000 in 1969, according to the scrapbooks. In the late 1960s, the money was targeted for equipment in the new x-ray lab and medical education wing under construction.
Number
of volunteers, crowds: Articles in the 1960s and 1970s say that 1000 people
volunteered at the fair. In 1974, 1500 people volunteered at the fair, which
was attended by 15,000 people. By the mid-eighties, there were “scores” of
volunteers.
Attractions at fair: There were usually about 25 tables. In 1955, for example, there were rides, movies, model train exhibit, snack bar, old clothes, children’s books, cake and candy, gifts and Christmas decorations, flowers and vegetables, gadgets, decorative articles and knick knacks, nurses booth, everything for kitchen, jewelry booth, Opportunity booth (white elephants and antiques), surprise packages, toys, hospital booth exhibited microfilm machine, iron lung and the newest thing in hot food containers. In 1982, the fair offered, among other things, bagpipers, professional craftspersons, antiques, carnival rides, a road race, blood pressure screenings and music by a barbershop quartet. In the 1980s, there were preview dinners of lobster and roast beef and carnival rides the evening before. Sports celebrities were often guests, i.e. Eagles tight end Pete Retzlaff in 1964 and Flyer Gary Dornhofer in 1978. Grand prizes were offered each year and sometimes included cars and bridal dolls with trousseaux (sometimes handmade). (In 1947, the Grand award was a 1947 Ford; other prizes that year were $100 savings bond, a case of scotch whiskey, an RCA Radio-Television set; a doll house made by Herbert Bradley, electric trains and track.
Fair themes: Like the
first fair, each fair had a theme around which the fair was decorated. In
1949, the theme was “Say it with Music”; the lemon stick booth was decorated
around “Yes, We Have No Bananas”, the holiday booth was decorated around
“White Christmas” and the Mystery Package table, “Just One of those Things”.
In 1969, the theme of “Fun and Games”; the Gourmet Booth was called “Gambling
Gourmet” and featured a roulette wheel, offering foods, fruit breads, sauces,
jellies and handmade pastries.
Other local groups worked on the fair and sponsored benefits through out
the year. The League for Service, a group of 100 women in Chestnut Hill,
Mt. Airy and Germantown who were active in community affairs that was founded
as the War Relief Aid Committee, hosted an annual spring luncheon and fashion
show. Chestnut Hill Hospital Doctors’ Wives Association hosted events such
as theater parties, movie benefits, cooking demonstrations and fashion shows
of clothes from Monkey Business. Merchants, either independently or as part
of the Chestnut Hill Business Men’s Association or the current Chestnut Hill
Business Association, helped, as well. [The Chestnut Hill Business Men’s
Association was a separate organization from the Chestnut Hill Development
Group, which is now know as the Chestnut Hill Business Association. The Development
Group was founded in 1955.] Occasionally, merchants would give a percentage
of the gross receipts of a particular day (“Sellabration Day”) to the hospital.
There were often window decorating contests. Among the many merchants who
participated was Mary Fretz, owner of the former 21 West restaurant, who
made her signature omelettes in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the women’s
clothing stores sold specialty items for the benefit of the Main Street Fair,
such as monogrammed blouses or handbags in the 1950s and 1960s.
Main Street Fair events took place through out the year. In addition to the League of Service fashion show and movie benefits were a flea market, art lectures, card parties, golf tournaments, tennis parties and buffet dinners, Chestnut Hill Hospital All-Stars Softball games, dinner dance benefits, horse shows and pre-sales by the book, old clothes and Opportunity Booth and special toy booth sales, among many others. Special events included a 1968 movie benefit featuring a screening of “Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang” and a French picnic; a 1973 pops concert and dinner featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra Brass Ensemble, and a 1974 benefit featuring a “mentalist” called “The Amazing Kreskin”. The ‘Amazing Kreskin’ benefit netted $16,063.66 for the hospital. Museum Shops on the Go, a November weekend event that featured merchandise museum shops from throughout the East Coast, benefited the hospital.
Art & Design: The Main Street Fair was a co-host and beneficiary with the Chestnut Hill Community Fund of the Art & Design showhouses, which took place at various houses (usually for sale) in the Chestnut Hill area from 1979 until 1996. Designers and landscape architects decorated rooms and spaces inside and outside the house. Each year, the showhouse was open to the public from late September until late October and was opened with festive preview party.