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Rutland Daily Herald, July 20, 1931
FAIR TO REBUILD INDUSTRIAL HALL
Noyes Awarded Contract to Replace Structure Burned on July 12
Construction work will start immediately on a new $13,000 Industrial building on the Rutland Fairgrounds in accordance with action taken by the officials and trustees of the Fair Association at a special meeting in the association office Saturday afternoon.
Charles G. Noyes of Adams Street, local contractor who has erected other fair buildings, was given the contract for the new structure. He assured the fair officials that the exhibition hall would be completed in sufficient time to allow the merchants and manufacturers to arrange their showings before the opening of this season’s fair on Labor Day, September 7.
The new structure will be similar to the one destroyed by fire. However, a number of changes have been made in the plans, which are expected to add to the convenience and beauty. At the entrance on the west and the south side, colonial type porches will be incorporated. These entrances will be columned in a manner similar to that with which the design of the Boys’ and Girls’ building is marked. Four large 14-foot columns will support a roof over each entrance.
Roofing on this new structure will be of slate shingles so as to be fireproof. The framework, partitions and outside covering will be of wood, as was the former building. The concrete floor and foundation, which served the former structure, will also be used in the exhibition hall. For 108 feet of the 254-foot ridge of the building’s roof, a glass-enclosed monitor is to be constructed to provide light in the daytime and ventilation both day and night.
The west end of the structure will be given over to offices. The Rutland Chamber of Commerce will occupy a portion of the building on this end, as it did formerly. President Will L. Davis and Secretary Frank S. Nicholson will have offices in this part of the building and space will be allotted for the accommodation of the ticket sellers. Here the gate receipts and tickets will be counted and checked. A ticket sales booth will occupy the northwest corner of the building so that fair-goers approaching from Park Street will not have to go around to the main gate on South Main Street. Women’s toilet and rest room facilities will be improved.
President Davis stated that the Fair Association has been assured the full cooperation of all the merchants and manufacturers who formerly occupied exhibition space in the Industrial building. It was principally because of this assurance that the association officials and trustees acted to rebuild the destroyed hall immediately.
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