Heritage Days History - Bath Maine's Annual July 4th Celebration
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of Bath’s Heritage Days, a days-long festival celebrating the Fourth of July. The event launched in 1972, but with a 2-year Covid-related hiatus in 2020-2021. That 2024 makes it the Golden Anniversary!
The Bath Independent, June 16th, 1949. From NewspaperArchive.com
July 4th has been a special day in Bath history since at least 1849. That was the year of the very first Firemen’s Muster (anywhere) and the arrival of passenger train service to Bath. The elites of Bath also celebrated the opening of something they felt they richly deserved but had been denied - a fancy hotel. The Sagadahock House hotel, on the northwest corner of Front & Centre Streets was the host of the finest social events, business confabs, fraternal and political meetings for the next 40+ years until it burned in a 1894 fire (and replaced immediately by the Sagadahock Block - the building there today.)
On July 4th 1949, Bath citizens celebrated the “double centennial” of these events with a grand celebration. (See image at very top.) A June 16th, 1949 article in The Bath Independent (above right) describes the planning committee’s plea to the public to donate money to support the fireworks display. Donations were slow in coming, so a strategic decision was also made to move the Fireworks Fund Box from City Hall to a spot on Front Street near the Maine State Liquor Store (where there was presumably more foot traffic.) Ha!
Parents were also reminded that this public fund was a better investment than “recklessly” spending money on fireworks for their children. Ha! Ha! Probably safer too.
The Bath Independent, July 7th, 1949. The headlines and crowd photos are pretty spectacular!
The very first "Bath Heritage Days, in 1972, featured 8 days of events, including a dog obedience demonstration, an architecture lecture, a parade, a fair, a comedy show, a puppet show, sales and exhibits, and culminated in the public launch of a Bath Iron Works container ship.
The article excerpts below give a bit more history.
A portion of an article from the June 29th Times Record describing the first Heritage Days. See the whole article on the Curtis Memorial Library Archives.
This article, from The Times Record, May 22, 1975 describes the purpose behind the first Heritage Days. See the whole article on the Curtis Memorial Library Archives.
No post about the history of patriotic celebrations in Bath would be complete without mention of Eddie Emmons, Bath’s own renowned drum major. Eddie died 1946 at age 86, after having marched in that year’s Memorial Day parade (his last). So, he did not get to lead an official Heritage Days parade, but he led many, many others here, and throughout the state and country.
He was well known for being kind to children and animals, tending the flowers at the cemeteries, his erect posture, trim physique, and buoyant step, even into his old age, and his many, many wonderful costumes, described as “gorgeous creations” in his obituary.
For more about the history of Bath, Maine, join us on a Walking Tour - we promise to lead you with a buoyant step!
From The Bath Independent, September 26th, 1956.
