Celebrating the season: Horseshed Fair in Lancaster has long tradition of joy

Back in the day, members launched a much smaller Horseshed Fair at First Church in Lancaster. Their goal: make money for the church and have fun. Mission accomplished. The Unitarian church, on the Town Green, dates back to pioneer days as the first church established in the new town of Lancaster. Its history is rich — names such as Rowlandson, Thayer and St. Ivanyi are in its roster of ministers, as is Edmund Sears, composer of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”

The congregation is 370 years old but its current building — the Fifth Meeting House, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch — is a mere 206 years old. Most townspeople know the church for a more modern innovation, its Horseshed Fair.

Across 47 years, since its launch, townspeople have known many key volunteers and founders — Franklin (Bud) and Cathy Perkins; former minister Thomas Wintle and his wife, Suzanne; David and Nina Kilbourn; Marsha Jakubowicz; Sarah and John Spencer; Edie Meleen; Allen and Marian (Mim) Franklin, among them. Some have died or moved on, with a new corps of planners and doers involved.

At its start, the fair was simple: just various needlework and baking goods, books and doo-dahs, all housed in the sheds outside the church. This year's fair is scheduled for Sept. 30, and now, it’s a much different affair.

A season of harvests and rewards

Come the advent of cooler days, with soft sunshine, colorful leaves and brisk air redolent of spices and sweets, New Englanders flock by the hundreds to activities that fill their senses. In this region, no other season is more rich or satisfying than the one that celebrates harvest and its rewards.At fairs like the Horseshed Fair, people indulge in the gentle cooling touch of fall air, the aromas of cider and apple pie, the sight of a child’s smiling face, the sound of music played by musicians sitting on hay bales or old chairs.

Like bears loading up for a winter’s sleep, hungry fairgoers crowd tables laden with Vermont cheese, cookies, fruit breads and hot baked beans. It seems they cannot get enough, taking home pints of beans or quarts of chili after indulging at the Lancaster fair.

Foods are prepared with loving care as fundraisers for the church — in other towns, sometimes for the school or library. Volunteers spend weeks preparing for the day, often able to predict who will line up for their specialties.Lancaster’s Horseshed Fair began nearly 50 years ago. On Sept. 30, more than 70 vendors will display their home-crafted wares, hoping some of the crowd will find just what they want for holiday gifting or keeping the kids warm when it’s cold.

Everyone pitches in

The fair began as a much smaller affair, church members selling books, plants, food, even second-hand furniture in the antique horse sheds, once used to house horses and carriages as their owners gathered in the town’s first house of worship. Before long, it became the 370-year-old congregation’s largest fundraiser. Over the decades, as the church grew to include a community hall, its tearoom offered fairgoers a place to sit and sip tea or coffee, nibble on a treat or sample chowder or hot vegetable soup. Crafters expanded fair activities across the lawn, and others in town brought in complementary activities — Thayer Memorial Library holds its huge annual book sale across the Green concurrently, drawing more folks to each event.

“It’s a great combination of craft fair and local community event,” said Win Clark, volunteer chairman, who said about 30 people begin to coordinate events in April, drawing on a long history of activities. While some changes have been necessary, given the smaller congregation and people’s busy lives, everyone pitches in to make the fair a win. Gone are the days of 15- to 20-person committees and having plenty of people to call on whenever something needs to be done. The congregation has aged. Younger families have replaced them, however, and there’s no lack of willingness to participate. On Fair Day, everyone shows up to help.

Crowd favorites include chili, burgers and corn chowder, now served in front of the church, a selection of 80 to 100 handmade pies — apple, blueberry and cherry — and kids’ activities, new each year. Two massive wheels of Vermont cheddar cheese sell briskly, and anyone who hesitates to secure a pie on first arrival might be unable to choose their favorite.

“Our low point was in 2020, when the fair was canceled because of COVID,” Clark said. That was a significant hit on the church’s budget. Not to be defeated, however, parishioners held an online pie sale, delivered at the front door. They sold out. The fair resumed the next year.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser and most visible community event,” Clark said. “And it’s a big opportunity for community building, which is one of our highest priorities.”

Longtime members Sarah and John Spencer stepped back from active leadership a couple of years back, being in their 80s. They remember groups of piemakers gathered in the church kitchen for days, rolling, filling and cutting the crusts of pies and fruit pastries. A dozen others sat chatting while they peeled several baskets full of apples. It’s not done that way now because folks prefer to bake the pies at home. The taste is still phenomenal.

Watching the weather

Rain is the devil’s curse. It cuts crowd size (although people still brave the elements to pick up their favorites), empties out craft booths early and generally drowns the good will of the day. Somehow, though, the fair is always a good event, rain or shine. After accidentally bumping the plastic cover of a booth during one deluge, one woman was doused, thoroughly and quickly, by cold water collected in its folds. Consequently, baking goods are now sold inside.

Years ago, Nat Hawkins steered the design and building of the hall despite loud protests from older church members (who later loved it). The hall provides inside space for the most weather-sensitive activities.

Nina Kilbourn remembers the early days of planning, circa 1978, while she juggled two children, planning meetings and pie making. Original craft items came from church members, featuring knitted tea cozies, hats and such for sale. Other members, inclined toward gardening, offered perennials; others baked pies.

“After three or four years, we realized we weren’t big enough to do a whole fair with just church people, so we added crafters. But we’ve done the fair almost the same every year since that time,” Kilbourn said.

It’s a lot of fun and unexpected glee — or terror.

One year, Bud Perkins brought over his apple press and began turning out cider. That great idea fizzled when the press began to attract bees — lots of them. No one remembers whether the bees had a nest in the press or just showed up, but people went nuts. Another year, Bud brought over his handsaw and a fiddle bow. He played the unlikely instrument periodically, coaxing old country tunes out of its bends and sways with the bow. That was an act repeated by public request in subsequent years.

In the past, while ladies ran the more refined tearoom, Kilbourn recalls, their male counterparts, being “chefs,” hid cold beer in a cooler beneath sodas sold to the public. “They were in good shape at the end of the day,” she said. Nowadays, the men have set up a beer stand, a popular innovation. The tearoom, however, has gone the way of five-cent postage stamps.

New ways to handle the project

Each year, there are new ways of handling the project. Church populations are down everywhere, and here is no exception. Everything is better planned and organized to handle the large event. “I used to help doing the planning and then work; I’d be there before 7 and stay until cleanup, all day,” Kilbourn said. “The pie making took three days.”According to Marcia Jakubowicz, it was the late Edie Meleen who introduced the idea. At first, women met at her house to craft sale items, later moving into the church parlor as more room was needed. “We left the kids with our husbands,” she said.

“We decided to change things at some point, have more crafters come in,” Jakubowicz said. “We quit making stuff and relied totally on the crafters. The fair grew by word of mouth and, later, advertisement.”

Church members turned cooks. “We picked a menu, something that we thought wouldn’t take up too much time,” she said. The menu stayed much the same until the advent of the chili cookers.

“It got bigger and bigger, from three to four hundred in profit to as high as $12,000, she said. “If we weren’t making $10,000, we knew something was wrong.”

“We had a lot of good times in the kitchen, making the pies” she said. “One year, we dropped one, taking it out of the oven. It was all over the floor, the oven door, and splattered on the cupboards. That was terrible.”

Kilbourn will be back again this year, along with members and friends. New members pitch in alongside, cementing bonds among them and creating new ways to do old things.

“It’s a lovely tradition, and it’s fun,” Kilbourn said.

She’s right.

A sampling of regional community fairs this fall

Fruitlands Museum 11th Craft Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 23 and 24, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard. More than 50 juried craft booths, $12 adults, $6 members.

Horseshed Fair, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 30 at First Church grounds, Lancaster. Free admission. Food, 70+ craft booths, music.

West Boylston Fall Fest, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 21, Town Common. Vendors, food, music, contests.

Applefest, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 14-15, Wachusett Mountain, Princeton. Entry fee. Chainsaw carving, pie eating contests, games and slides, music.

Douglas Oktoberfest, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 7, Main Street. Crafts, entertainment.

Grotonfest, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 30, Legion Common/School Street. Free admission. Crafters, music, food.

American Craft Fair, Oct. 21-22, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, 11 French Drive, Boylston. Worcester Center for the Crafts is a partner in this joint crafts, pottery, arts and more event. Free with paid admission to Tower Hill.

Arts and Crafts Fair, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 16; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 17, Townsend Town Common. Craft and arts booths, food.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Horseshed Fair at First Church in Lancaster a perennial favorite