The Big E is a regional fair, most notably showcased at the Avenue of States — and traveling there comes closer to a multi-state trek than you might think.
The Avenue of States is a strip of land on the fairground, which houses buildings that highlight Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
Each property is actually owned by it's respective state — similar to a foreign embassy on U.S. soil.
According to West Springfield Principal Assessor Alex Villa it means the Avenue of States is exempt from local property taxes.
"When the fair first came into existence, the Eastern States Agricultural Corporation transferred the ownership of these individual buildings from themselves into the state's ownership," he said. "Once they took ownership of these properties, they became non-taxable as exempt property owners."
Deed records show the land was sold to the respective states over the course of several decades, between 1925 and 1958. It's why a visitor can buy lottery tickets from a state inside its respective building, and why there's no sales tax in the New Hampshire building.
Even the Massachusetts building avoids West Side tax collectors — since it's actually owned by the state government, and not the town.
While the buildings are owned by their respective states and exempt from local taxes, they are still governed by the laws of the state, according to Massachusetts' General Laws. You could not, for example, commit a crime in the Connecticut Building and flee to the Rhode Island Building as a legal refuge. Any crimes that happen in any building are under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts State Police
