It’s been around since 1996, but people are still surprised when the run across the West End Fair Museum at the fairgrounds.

Museum volunteer Patricia Schneider said it was created in the former fair office for the 75th anniversary of the fair. The fair began in 1920 and has run every year since except for two years — 2020 due to COVID-19 and 1942 due to World War II.

Everything in the museum was donated by people in the area. Schneider said her favorite piece is the counter top they use today when people purchase fair memorabilia. It’s the counter top in the former Pearsol store in Kunkletown. Her great-great-grandfather James Pearsol ran the post office and then her great-grandfather Wesley Herbert Pearsol took over. Her grandfather was Wesley Herbert Pearsol Jr.

The Pearsol family also ran the grocery store in the other half of a building and lived upstairs.

The building is now owned by the Eldred Township Historical Society, which has been fixing the building up with the goal to eventually open it as a museum.

The counter top is painted in a creamy yellow and dark green accent and a dark wood top. It’s painted just as it was when it was in the store, Schneider said.

The museum is run by Schneider’s niece Lisa Borger.

“It’s a family affair,” Borger said.

Members of their family have been active in the West End Fair since the beginning.

“We’ve been here since we were born,” Schneider said.

“I was a baby here,” Borger added.

Borger said her favorite part is the entrance to the museum, which was the original fair office. It’s her favorite because her grandfather and great-grandfather were officers on the fair board.

The museum is set up like rooms of a house, traditional eclectic, Borger said, with items mainly from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. All of the artifacts are original to their era, even the military uniforms, some of which are from World War I.

“I love all this stuff,” Borger said.

She was particularly proud of some new exhibits featuring items from Heckman Orchards. One shows articles about the orchard, and apple cider.

“It brings back old memories of making apple cider,” she said.

Borger also created a scene of outdoor games, and classroom with a variety of desks and wares from long ago. She also is proud of some of the printed materials in the museum. She has every program from the West End Fair and a local newspaper reporting on the day the music died in 1959 when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in plane crash in Iowa.

“I’m so happy I saved it,” Borger said. She carefully placed the newspaper in a large picture frame to preserve it.

One of the items that visitors to the museum seem to love is an original telephone booth, said museum volunteer Tracy Merwine.

“The telephone booth has been the biggest hit,” she said.

“They all have to have their pictures taken in it,” Borger added.

The museum is open during the fair. The museum has lots of items for sale including T-shirts, sweatshirts, blankets, wineglasses and postcards.

The museum also has some giveaways, a treasure chest of items for children, and a jar of bouncy balls for people to guess how many are crammed in there. Just make sure to have cash on hand because they don’t take credit.