Site of First California State Fair

The state's first fair opened on 4 October 1854 in Henry Meiggs's Musical Hall, the lumber dealer's two-story building on this corner. That same week the hall's owner slipped out through the Golden Gate before dawn with his family and his brother, the newly elected city controller, leaving several hundred thousand dollars in forged city warrants behind him. Becalmed for two days outside, he was chased by creditors with rifles on a steamer until the wind came back. He went on to build railroads in Chile and Peru.

What the plaque says

Site of First California State Fair California's first state fair was held on this site on October 4, 1854. Sponsored by the California State Agricultural Society, the exhibition of "horses, cattle, mules and other stock, and agricultural, mechanical and domestic manufacture and productions" promoted the new state's growing agricultural industry. A different city held the fair each year, until Sacramento became the permanent location in 1861. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 861 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Grand Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, August 18, 1973.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 11 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 12 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Earthquake Trail — 28 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 28 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Liberty Bell Slot Machine — steps away
• Shoreline Markers — steps away
• Site of Parrott Granite Block — steps away
• California Theatre — steps away