ALEDO, Ill. — The Mercer County Fair is underway this week in Aledo, featuring all the usual fair traditions from the livestock shows, to the carnival rides and department displays.
This year, the fair, which is one of the oldest in Illinois, is celebrating its 170th year. A new Exhibition Hall is also now open, and that's helping save one of the fair's oldest buildings.
The Floral Hall, built in 1882, is the second oldest building at the Mercer County Fairgrounds. It's where all the department displays were housed, including the antiques, quilts, 4-H displays, canned goods, photography and so much more. However, the Fair Board recently realized the hall wasn't up to standards anymore.
"We've had many, many discussions what we could do, because we knew that we wanted to preserve the Floral Hall because it is a very special building," said Fair Board President Rita Williams. "But at the same time, we knew we did not have the money to invest to do the restoration that was really needed to make the building safe and make it user friendly."
The board made the decision to close the building and not use it during the fair this year. Williams said they also decided they were going to have to tear it down and build something new.
"It was a very hard decision for the board and it was something very hard for the community to accept also," she said. "It's so many of the memories from that building that so many in the community have and remember when they were young and they displayed, or 'I remember my grandmother having their quilt in it.' So it's more the personal connection as much as the historical connection."
That's when someone in the community stepped in to donate the money to build the new Exhibition Hall, with the stipulation the board keep the Floral Hall.
"We were just floored that we were able to save this building," Williams said.
All the displays that used to be in the Floral Hall have moved to the Exhibition Hall.
"I think they've struck a really nice balance here of preserving the tradition and deciding not to tear that building down and thinking about the community dollars that came in to preserve it," said David Shike, whose family has participated in the 4-H livestock shows for three generations now. "I would say there's been more people filing through there the last couple of days than other fair years when it was a little more challenging to get up the steps (of the Floral Hall.)"
Now, Williams and the rest of the Fair Board will start making plans for the old Floral Hall.
"It's going to be a very slow process, it's going to be a work in progress," she said. "First of all, we're going to have to make sure we address all the safety issues. That was one of the main concerns of the building."
One idea she has for it is to use it for demonstrations that are applicable to the time the hall was built, such as basket weaving or rope making.
The Mercer County Fair runs through Saturday, July 15.