Archive Record
Images
Additional Images [1]
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2025.100.89 |
Collection |
A Window on the Past columns |
Object Name |
Clipping |
Reference code |
US SPHi 2025.100.89 |
Title |
Theft and debauchery at the 1898 New England Fair at Rigby Park |
Date |
2025 |
Scope & Content |
Feature story about the events that took place at the 1898 New England Fair at Rigby Park, South Portland, Maine, and how that led to the eventual demise of trotting park. A Window on the Past history column by Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo, executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. Published on the South Portland Historical Society blog on wordpress.com, September 12, 2025. Rigby Park was designed and built by Seth Griffin. The park held its grand opening on October 3, 1893. The last races were held in 1899 and the park was boarded up for good in 1900. Most of the buildings, including the enormous grandstand, were demolished in 1903. The race track was also the site of alcohol consumption and illegal betting and gambling. In August, 1894, Rigby Park held its own event, the Grand Horse Fair, to augment its normal horse trottting business. The New England Fair was then held at Rigby Park from 1895 until 1898. During the fair, all manner of entertainments was offered on the midway, including dancing girls and various amusements; some of the coochee coochee shows at Rigby were managed by Lew Walker, also known as Diamond Lew because of the $300 diamond that he had set into one of his front teeth. At the end of the 1898 New England Fair, the cashier responsible for the pool sellers' money, John Gibson, took the cash box home for the night for safekeeping, but he didn't show up the next day. The pool sellers looked for him, but he had left town. The theft is believed to have been $22,000 (over $750,000 in today's dollars). Tom O'Neil, who had backed the pool box syndicate at Rigby during the fair, tracked Gibson down and found him in New York City. Portland Police refused to get involved, however, as the theft was of illegal gambling money. |
Search Terms |
A Window on the Past (news columns) Rigby Park New England Fair |
Subjects |
Fairs Gambling Prohibition Alcoholic beverages Drinking Midways |
People |
DiPhilippo, Kathryn Onos |
Site # |
103 |
Site Name - For More Information |
Rigby Park |