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Columbia's second fair grounds (called Fair Grounds II) were used primarily as a neutral field to host Clemson and South Carolina's annual "Big Thursday" rivalry game from 1909, when the series revived, to 1934, when Williams-Brice Stadium opened. From opening in 1904 through 1908, both Clemson and South Carolina hosted other foes during fair week to replace the paused contest. Throughout its life, South Carolina supplemented the field with the Gamecocks' home athletic venues: Davis Field and Melton Field. It replaced Fair Grounds I.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-0-1 at this field, tying in their lone non-conference, neutral-site contest. Clemson protested the result of the game; the Red and White were (very) temporarily blacklisted from the SIAA, but no action was taken towards the outcome of the game.

  * Non-conference games

While it was known ahead of the 1903 South Carolina State Fair that the grounds would be moving, definite plans did not begin to materialize around February 1904. In addition to the creation of novel buildings such as the Women's Building and dedicated buildings for Commercial and Agricultural interests, it was also planned from the outset for there to be two athletic fields, each with their own grandstand: one field specifically for athletics, and one for horse racing. The interest seems to have come from the equine side, with the new facilities focusing heavily on becoming a "wintering" location for trainers. Of the two, the athletic field is less relavent to the overall history of the fair complex, but more germane to our studies here, so it will be covered first.

The Fair Grounds' athletic field was first described in April 1904 as a 450' x 450' square located in the northeast corner of the grounds, though as the design came to fruition, they ended up in the northwest corner. In late September, the grandstand from the old fairgrounds (by then informally called Elmwood Park) was transplanted to the new grounds. Retrospective estimates vary heavily on the capacity, ranging from precisely 682 seats to 3,000; the former number likely incorectly reflects a capacity reduced by the partial conversion of the grandstand to box seating later in the venue's life. At their perch above the old fairgrounds, the stands were said to hold about 1,500 spectators. No bleachers were erected at this time, leaving the grandstand on the northwestern side as the only seating [1] [2] [3].

With the grounds purchased and grandstand relocated, the only matter remaining was that of scheduling games. Some consternation arose regarding the sub-par condition of the tract, with both Clemson and South Carolina (who at this time were each scheduling a neutral-site contest at the fair in lieu of playing each other during fair week) considering relocating their games. The playing surface was in "dreadful condition," with the un-sodded field's natural "white and sandy and very dusty" soil proving unideal for the sharp pivots typified in football runs. Further, "the field is full of furrows, and has snags and roots and 'stickers' in it." The condition remained a relatively constant complaint throughout the early life of the stadium; by 1906, the grass was "better than last year," but still regarded as patchy and slick [4].

In 1909, Clemson and South Carolina resumed relations. Immediately, crowds began to overburden the old grandstand, with the inaugural Big Thursday at the site bringing in 2,500 persons, forcing several persons to stand around the field. In 1913, about 1-2,000 bleachers were erected on the southeastern side of the field, pushing seated capacity to about 4,000. That year's Clemson-Gamecock game immediately inundated the stands, with the 5,000 reported viewers overwhelming the seating of the venue. Expansion was repeated throughout the 1920s, with about 3,000 seats added in 1920 and another 2,000 added in 1921, though seating was formally renumbered that year, lowering actual capacity to 8,000 persons. It was enlarged for the third time in four years in 1923, when about 1,500 seats were added in the course of replacing a portion of the bleachers, pushing seating to 10,000 [5] [2].

That same year, jealousy was aroused over the revised seating of the racetrack; one writer called the 30-year-old grandstand "antiquated and uncomfortable." And the following fall, the grandstand (plus a number of "take-down stands") was replaced in kind with an "open" grandstand -- in other words, a bleacher. The new stand, seating 3,500 persons, pushed the capacity of the "old wooden bowl," as the plant was soon to be nicknamed, to 12,000 persons. The final enlargement came in 1929, when another couple thousand stands were erected by rounding out the venue's corners [6] [2] [3].

The athletic ground's life would not last much longer. After being completed in 1934, the Gamecocks' on-campus Columbia Municipal Stadium began hosting the fair classic in a new location, just adjacent to the fair. And perhaps it was time: nearly every aspect of the game was an anachronism of the ghost of football past, including even the day the match was held on -- Thursdays had been become unfashionable as a football date after the 1920s. In an era when many parks were electrifying their scoreboards and lighting their stadiums, the old wooden bowl had neither. And the spectators never quite reigned in their demeanor from the rowdy days of old: "The conduct there was a disgrace to civilzation," recalled long-time press man Jake Penland. "There were fights all over... Spectators got crazy drunk" [7] [2].

Little time was wasted converting the old football field into a baseball park for local City League games, featuring a combination of commercial and amateur teams. Earlier in the year, the fair had agreed to let the City League erect a field inside the race track, but now that football had vacated, it was decided those grounds would prove more adequate. To make the site a suitable host for baseball, the eastern stands were torn down and new bleachers and fencing constructed. Unfortunately, actual work on improving the field was slow; demo began in late April, but thanks to some delay in finishing the conversion, opening was delayed until early June 1934. After the close of the baseball season, the remainder of the stands were torn down to make way for more fair attractions; by 1936, it was replaced with additional stables [8].

Early on in the fair's life, the horse racetrack was the main drawing card of the event. This was reflected by the fact that, when the event relocated in 1904, the racetrack got a new grandstand while the athletic field got the old one. The new grandstand sat somewhere between 900 and 2,000 specators, and actually afforded a view of two racetracks, one a mile in length and a second half-mile track just inside of it. The new speedway had a legacy to maintain: the Elmwood grounds they replaced were widely considered "the fastest track in the south" [9] [10].

Unfortunately, horse racing was declining in popularity throughout the country, the Palmetto State included; in fact, motorized racing proved to be a better draw. As a result, few improvements were made to the track until 1920, when fair promoters revamped the grounds so that the autos had sole dominion of the larger loop, with the horses relegated to a smaller interior track; more bleachers were also added. A couple years later, in 1922, the entire complex and buildings were renovated; in the effort, the fence encircling the track was done away with, and the old seating replaced with a 5,000-person unit. At the same time, "A combination race track... [was] built out of the two present rather dilapidated courses" [11].

During the 1922 renovations, a baseball diamond was indicated on a map of the grounds adjacent to the new grandstand [12]. This was the first time baseball had been played in front of the race track, though not the first time baseball had come off at the fair: the colored Columbia Stars had played baseball at the fair as early as 1906, as did the the Columbia Giants in 1919; a Sanborn map of the same year indicates a "Base Ball Field" just south of the "old wooden bowl." Columbia's semi-professional baseball team, the Comers, moved to the grounds in 1926 [13].

Sadly, the Sally League's new diamond was short-lived. This time, horse racing's popularity did not kick the athletes out -- instead, a fire displaced them. In the evening of June 11th, 1926 -- midway through the season -- a fire consumed the entire grandstand. Because of construction at Melton Field and the permanent nature of the football stands, the Comers were temporarily forced to take their show on the road for a couple weeks while a replacement stand, seating 3,000 persons, was built. While auto racing remained, baseball moved in 1927 to Dreyfuss Park (now Capital City Stadium), and horse racing was abandoned after the 1926 edition of the fair [14].

In late 1934, the grandstand's roof was blown off in a storm; when it was replaced in 1935, the seating was increased to about 4,000 persons, and the roof revised so its supports obstructed fewer viewers. The following year, plans emerged to construct a polo field in the center of the loop. Despite WPA assistance and considerable local interest, the project barely got past preliminary stages: grading took place over the course of a year after heavy rains and shifted focus caused delays, and planting the field in grass proved unsuccessful [15].

A new concrete grandstand, seating 3,000 persons, was built ahead of the 1957 state fair. It was named for former fair secretary D. D. Witcover, who had spent nearly a decade of his 27 year presidency of the South Carolina Agricultural & Mechanical Society (who sponsored the fair) campaigning for the erection of such a structure, but passed away before it came to fruition. The seating was not covered, like the grandstands of old, but open to the elements; organizers were optimistic funds could be raised to roof the structure, though this never came to fruition. And though horse racing had been revived in 1952 in the form of the Palmetto Trials, the area's main draw was now the grandstand variety shows, which saw the track closed off for special attractions like circuses and rodeos [16].

As early as the 1950s, though, the area's main use was only tangentially athletic: it served as parking for the state fair and for concurrent games held at South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium. In 1968, the Palmetto Trials lost their primary sponsor (and charitable affiliation), the Junior League, and the following fall, the stables' main benefactor and advocate, Max Hirsch, passed away. Since as early as 1958, financial minds had been recommending the marginalization -- if not the removal -- of the fair's race track. The plant was demolished in 1969, and has since been leased as a parking lot to the University of South Carolina. The last vestige of the track remained until 1986, when the horse stables (which had been preserved for use in the fair's horse show) came down [17] [10].

Pictures of Fair Grounds II