Here’s what the country’s oldest Fourth of July parade looks like
Bristol, Rhode Island, has been celebrating the nation’s independence since 1785.
Massachusetts can lay claim to many of colonial America’s major events, but just across the Commonwealth’s border, over in Bristol, Rhode Island, is the home of what’s reportedly the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the country.
The city boasts the now 231-year-old Fourth of July record on the sign that welcomes visitors to this tiny town with a population of about 23,000 and on banners that adorn Hope Street, the setting for the parade.
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“It is definitely the oldest continuing celebration in the country,” Frances O’Donnell, parade chairwoman, told WPRI before this year’s festivities. “We have staked a claim to that and no one has refuted it.”
Bristol’s tradition started in 1785—that’s 85 years before the Fourth of July became a federal holiday in 1870.
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Now, each year, the town celebrates America with three weeks of patriotic festivities that officially start on Flag Day, June 14, and end on July 4 with the 2.5-mile Military, Civic, and Fireman’s Parade.
Check out some scenes from what’s arguably the most patriotic Fourth of July in America:
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