Independence Day Celebration
Event Date:
Saturday, June 29, 2024 - 9:00am
Address
Thresher Memorial Park
200 Rogers Road
Kittery, ME
03904
United States
See map: Google Maps
Join your friends and neighbors as the Town of Kittery celebrates Independence Day! Beginning at 9:00 AM on Saturday, June 29, 2024 at Thresher Memorial Park (located behind Town Hall, at 200 Rogers Road in Kittery), native son “General William Whipple” will give a reading from the Declaration of Independence, which he signed in 1776. General Whipple was born in Kittery in 1730, and went on to become a merchant sea captain, brigadier general in the New Hampshire militia, and a member of the Continental Congress. He is the only native Mainer to sign the Declaration of Independence. For more about General William Whipple, please click here.
As an exciting and historically significant addition, this year's event will also feature a reading of the historic Petition of Freedom submitted to the NH Legislature in 1779 by Whipple’s own enslaved person, Prince Whipple, and others seeking to obtain their individual liberty.
The Independence Day Celebration will also include The Piscataqua Rangers Junior Fife and Drum Corps, Capt. Henry Dearborn's Company of Revolution-era reenactors, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Color Guard.
The event will be followed by a reception next door at the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum, where refreshments will be available.
