We went searching for the most uniquely-decorated tents at Grange Fair. Here’s what we found

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The Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair has a lot to offer — an abundance of food options, farm animals, carnival games and rides await every visitor. But the most unique thing about the Grange Fair may be its tents, and the decorations that adorn them.

Now celebrating its 150-year anniversary, the Grange Fair is not just the only tenting fair in Pennsylvania, but it markets itself as the only remaining tenting fair in the nation.

For nine days every summer, 1,000 tents are pitched on the fairgrounds, with some families holding onto their tenting spots for decades.

The tents come in a plain, forest-green color, but each year a theme is announced by the fair committee that families can try to match when decorating their tents, if they choose to do so. Fittingly, this year’s theme is a celebration of the fair’s 150th anniversary.

On Monday, we took a trip to this year’s Grange Fair on the hunt for some of the most uniquely-decorated tents, whether they followed the theme or not.

Below are the six most unique tents that we found. To check them out for yourself, or the many other activities and events at the fair, visit the fairgrounds through Saturday.

Rolling back the years

The first tent can be found at N10-23 and embraces the 150-year anniversary theme with open arms.

It was decorated by Sandy Mansfield of Rhode Island, whose family has been coming to the Grange Fair for decades. So she thought it would be appropriate to decorate her family’s tent with history from fairs of the past.

“We’ve done a lot here to commemorate the big anniversary year and I, personally, think it looks really good,” Mansfield said. “We’ve got a harvest memorial and so many little tidbits of history scattered all over the tent.”

One decoration that Mansfield is particularly proud of is a timeline made of wooden slats laid out in the grass in front of the tent. Every other slat is decorated with an important Grange Fair-related event and the year that it occurred, including the canceled fair year during the COVID-19 pandemic, the year that updated restrooms were installed and the years where the fairgrounds were expanded.

Mansfield also repurposed two used window shutters to display photos of her family, as well as her relatives that originally started going to the fair.

To top it all off, in the evenings Mansfield sets out a television for passing visitors to watch. It plays the Grange Fair committee’s documentary that honors the 150 years that the fair has been taking place.

Family butterflies

Sisters Patty Bird and Mary Johnston decorated their tent a little differently than Mansfield, as their tent has butterflies, flowers and fall leaves strewn tastefully across the entryway.

These decorations aren’t just for looks though — there’s a significance to them, the sisters say.

“Twenty-five years ago we had a dear family member pass away, and right before she left this world, she told us that she’d come back to visit us in the form of a butterfly,” Bird said. “Ever since that day, whenever either of us have been having a bad day, lo and behold there’s always a butterfly somewhere. She’s always with us, and this is just another great way for us to honor her.”

Bird and Johnston are joined at the fair this year by their families, and their tent can be found on D Street, L5.

An out-of-place outhouse

The next tent on the list belongs to the Rogers family, a family that decided to honor the Grange Fair’s 150th anniversary in an unorthodox way — by stationing a wooden outhouse outside of their tent.

Don’t worry though — there are no smells coming from this latrine, as it’s only a prop that was once used in the family’s decorations in previous years.

Helen Rogers-Koon, a key decorator for her family’s tent this year, said that to her surprise, the outhouse has been a big hit. She said she’s received many positive comments on the wooden throne.

“We’ve used (the outhouse) as a prop before and the first time that we did it, it got a lot of attention, so we figured that we’d bring it back for another round at the fair,” Rogers-Koon said. “People have been walking by and asking about it every single day this year — we’ve even had some people ask if they could use it.”

While the outhouse could technically be used as a bathroom, the Rogers family has nailed the door to the latrine shut so that no passersby get any funny ideas.

In addition to the outhouse, the family also has memorabilia that was collected from Grange Fairs in years past, and the tent can be found at N1-13.

Wooden family cutouts

When walking up to the Sharer family’s tent, expect to be greeted by the smiling faces of eight wooden cutouts, representative of Rod and Melissa Stein’s eight great-grandchildren.

Each cutout is lined up in front of a white fence with a gate, and each one was decorated by either the great-grandchild themselves or their parents.

The idea for these cutouts started a few years ago, but as scarecrows. The family decided to transition to wooden cutouts for more sturdiness.

“It’s a unique tradition that we have here,” Melissa Stein said. “I don’t think anyone else in the fair has tent decorations like ours and the great-grandchildren just love it.”

For those wishing to see the Sharer family tent, it can be found at N1-26.

A flamingo fiesta

With bright pink flamingo decorations displayed at every corner of the tent, Michelle Lane’s family’s tent is a hard one to miss.

While it isn’t the most traditional, theme-adhering tent, it is without a doubt a can’t-miss for those who enjoy seeing unique tents.

Lane’s flamingo tent decorations started years ago when, on a whim, she decided to give her family’s tent a bit more color.

Each year since the idea was hatched, more and more flamingo decorations were added, and Lane doesn’t see an end in sight.

“Oh it’s unique all right, isn’t it?” Lane said. “I love flamingos and really wanted to bring some of their pop and color to our once-bland tent, and here we are. I hope to continue decorating the tent like this in years to come, but we’ll see. I’m always looking to add new decorations.”

Each year, Lane and her family try to bring pink or flamingo-themed gifts to give out to passersby that stop to look at the flamboyant tent, with this year’s gift being pink, flamingo-adorned pinwheels.

Those looking to stop in and get a pinwheel, or those just looking to see a unique tent, can find Lane’s along row N2.

An entire tent decorated

The final tent, which can be found at N5-3, belongs to Marsha Tate and the Tate family, and it’s decked to the nines with Grange Fair memories and memorabilia.

The Tates — a family that has been in attendance at all 150 Grange Fairs — have collected a lot of fair artifacts over the years, and Tate has put them on full display this year for the milestone anniversary.

Dozens of historical photographs, antiques and even a portable toilet from one of the earliest Grange Fairs in the 1800s can be found both inside and outside of the tent.

“While we don’t decorate for every fair’s theme every single year, this year’s theme was a bit more special, so we decided to go all out,” Tate said. “My family has collected a lot of history at the fair over the years and I’m proud to have gotten the chance to put it all on display here.”

Some of the other things that can be found at Tate’s tent site is several Christmas trees, decorated with farm animal plushies and livestock ribbons won in past years, a chest-high Snoopy inflatable and light strands lining the edges of the tent.