Aug 13, 2015 2 min read

The Washington County Fair opens Saturday, and as always, something new is on the schedule. This year, it’s tomorrow’s obstacle course for side-by-side and 4X4 all-terrain vehicles.

There are other new attractions and admission discounts, and there’s fresh paint on some of the exhibit halls, but what really brings people to the fair is not the new but the old: tradition.

The fair has been held for 217 years, and there are not many other institutions in Western Pennsylvania older than it. (The fair had been going on for 10 years before The Reporter printed its first edition – coincidentally – Aug. 15, 1808.)

There’s no doubt that relatively recent additions to the fair, like high-school band night, the school bus demolition derby and musical performances by well-known country-western acts, drew big crowds to the Arden Fairgrounds, but the heart of the fair still beats in the livestock barns and show rings where the county’s agricultural heritage is on display.

Another piece of our past sits adjacent to the fairgrounds and deserves attention of those attending the fair: the John White House.

The two-story sandstone house is near the fairgrounds entrance off Main Street extension. It was originally constructed in 1806 for John White Jr., who with his family operated a grist mill on Chartiers Creek. A brick addition was put on in 1860.

A vegetable and herb garden was added to the property this summer, and the house will be open for tours during the fair.

A visit to the house is a journey into history nearly as old as the fair itself.