Westmoreland County commissioners took their Thursday public meeting out of the courthouse and into the visitors center at Historic Hanna’s Town, bringing routine county business to the site that once served as the county’s first seat of government. The move was part of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration and put the board back on the grounds of the 1773 village recreation about 5 miles east of Greensburg.
Inside the historic setting, the commissioners still handled the work of a regular meeting. They awarded contracts, approved personnel actions, presented proclamations and heard public comment from a half-dozen residents who came to the site to speak.
For Westmoreland County, the setting mattered as much as the agenda. Historic Hanna’s Town is a re-creation of the village that anchored early local government, and the meeting placed present-day county decisions directly alongside the place’s Revolutionary-era meaning. Joanna Moyar, who directs interpretations and collections for the Westmoreland County Historical Society, said having a meeting there was symbolic of the government’s history and reflected a place where people gave their opinions and aired their grievances, just as they still do now.
The commissioners have done this before. They held a public meeting on the grounds in 2023 to mark the county’s 250th birthday, and this week’s session revived that idea rather than treating Hanna’s Town as a one-time backdrop. Commissioner Doug Chew said the setting reminded him of the rebellious nature of Westmoreland County’s ancestors and a precursor to American independence. Commissioner Sean Kertes said he would like to come back more often, perhaps every other year.
The unanswered question is whether that will happen. The board signaled interest in returning, but it did not commit to a regular schedule, leaving Historic Hanna’s Town as an occasional venue for county government rather than a standing one.
The site, operated by the Westmoreland County Historical Society, fits the occasion because it is more than a memorial. Its reconstructed Hanna’s Tavern, relocated log houses, Revolutionary War-era fort and late-18th century Conestoga wagon give the commissioners a rare setting where the county’s present business can sit inside its own origin story.
