Mercer County Fairgrounds

Mercer County Fairgrounds occupies 52.41 flat acres on the southwest side of Aledo, Illinois, where the county fair has been held since the Agricultural Society moved it from Millersburg in 1869. The grounds contain a half-mile dirt track with a grandstand, exhibition halls, animal barns, a brick office and ticket building, and food stands. Eleven buildings contribute to the district. The oldest is the eight-sided Exhibition Building of 1880, known as the Pumpkin Building, followed by the Greek Cross-plan Floral Hall of 1882, built by contractor J. S. Pinkerton. A fire in 1920 destroyed most wooden structures on the south side, and the swine barn and rest rooms were built in 1921 to replace them. The 1926 Merchants' Building was finished in under a month. Fair competitions pushed local farmers to improve yields, and the grounds became a long-running community gathering place. The fair continues there each July, so use of the site has not changed.