Kennebunk will mark its bicentennial of incorporation a bit later than expected due to the pandemic that halted events in 2020 and will do so in a series of videos that will begin airing June 23. Here, Al Adams portrays an historical figure downtown. Courtesy Photo/Video Creations
KENNEBUNK – The celebrations to mark the bicentennial of the incorporation of Kennebunk as its own town – separate from Arundel and Wells – in 1820 is happening soon, with a series of video events starting June 23, the day before its 201st anniversary.
Events that had been planned for so long were postponed in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic interrupted, postponed and canceled so many events in the U. S. and across the world.
Now, they’re on, and folks will be able to enjoy them and learn more of the town’s history June 23-26.
There will be videos of militia life, and how those who were a part of it lived their lives, along with a Museum in the Streets piece, where various volunteers bring some of the town’s citizens to life, to share their stories.
Participants can travel through Hope Cemetery as flags are placed on the graves of those who were alive in 1820.
The bicentennial quilt will be shown and people will hear from the quilters who created it.
Town officials and committee members will talk about Kennebunk at 200, and “Bicentennial: A Musical Celebration with Dana Pearson and Monica Grabin” is on tap.
And folks will be able to see and hear another part of history, a bicentennial legacy project.
“(The video) is an archeological exploration of the town’s formerly enslaved people of color settlement,” said Town Historian Kathy Ostrander Roberts in a news release.
Among the videos to be aired to mark Kennebunk’s bicentennial is a legacy project involving a settlement where people of color lived in the community until just after 1831, when the last of those living there succumbed to old age. A couple of archeological digs have taken place at the settlement and another is set for this summer, said Town Historian Kathy Ostrander Roberts. Courtesy Photo/Video Creations
The settlement was in existence upon the emancipation of slavery in Maine in 1789, and continued until about 1831, when old age took its toll, said Roberts in a phone interview on Monday. All are buried at the site. In all, she said, while 37 people are named in area histories, it is thought that about 100 people of color lived in Kennebunk and Wells between 1756 and 1831; three fought in the Revolutionary War.
Roberts was a member of the town’s cemetery committee 20 years ago, she said, when she first read about the settlement cemetery.
The bicentennial committee embraced the legacy project.
“We’ve had two archeological surveys and a third is planned this summer,” said Roberts. An exhibit of the artifacts and a presentation about the lives of those who lived at the settlement will open at the Brick Store Museum at the end of June and run through December.
In addition to the video pieces, banners created by Kennebunk High School students are featured around town, a scholarship was awarded, and a commemorative booklet can be found at a number of locations throughout Kennebunk.
The video series will run on the Bicentennial Committee Facebook page, YouTube and on the town cable channel. An itinerary will soon be published on the town’s website, said Roberts.
“I’m thrilled we’re going to have a bicentennial event,” said Roberts, who chairs the committee. And while it won’t be the live events originally planned, the online presentations will help tell Kennebunk’s story.
“We are trying to tell the narrative of our town as a whole, all the pieces that makes us who we are today,” said Roberts.
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