Help celebrate Barrington's 300th birthday on Saturday

Event will be held at Barrington Public Library

Posted 11/15/17

The Town of Barrington will celebrate the 300th anniversary of its establishment with a founders day birthday party on Saturday, Nov. 18. 

The celebration begins at 1:45 p.m. on the front …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Help celebrate Barrington's 300th birthday on Saturday

Event will be held at Barrington Public Library

Posted

The Town of Barrington will celebrate the 300th anniversary of its establishment with a founders day birthday party on Saturday, Nov. 18. 

The celebration begins at 1:45 p.m. on the front steps of the public library with a "Salute to 1717." Dr. Van Edwards, historian and chairman of Barrington 300, will serve as town cryer and read the text of the decree establishing Barrington as a town. 

Dr. Edwards will be joined by Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, Barrington Town Manager Jim Cunha, members of Boy Scout Troop 6, trumpeter Greg Voigt and costumed villagers.

The celebration will then move indoors to the renovated Salem Auditorium on the second floor of the library. Welcoming remarks will be followed by a brief history of why the town is celebrating 1717 as the year of its founding, not 1770, as shown on some official town signs and plaques. 

Speakers will clarify the shifting political, religious and territorial boundaries in early colonial New England that determined the incorporation of Barrington, first as a Massachusetts town in 1717, then as part of the new town of Warren, Rhode Island, from 1747 to 1770, and then why it was re-incorporated as Barrington, Rhode Island in 1770.  

There will also be a ceremony, where Mr. Cunha and Dr. Edwards will each present awards to town hall staff and key volunteers who helped conceive, organize and manage the Barrington 300 events.

The party will then move to the new Collis Gallery for conversation, music, cider and  upcakes. Music will be by O'Donnelly, Thompson & Venuti. There will also be the book "Barrington," produced by Arcadia Press for the Barrington Preservation Society, framed photographs and brass tricentennial medallions available for sale.

The event is open to the public. 

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.