Block Island Celebrates 350th Anniversary!

Block Island Celebrates 350th Anniversary

In 2011, the smallest town in the smallest state of the union — tiny Block Island, Rhode Island — will celebrate its 350th anniversary of settlement. The island was settled in 1661 by 16 founding families from Massachusetts, and the 350th anniversary year, 2011, promises to be a festive one indeed for Block Island residents and visitors.

In the planning stages are such events as tours aboard vintage ships, bands, a musical variety show by the Block Island Choir, a series of heritage presentations (including one by Rhode Island cartoonist Don Bousquet and his son), slide shows, Beacon Hill Day, placement of a new monument dedicated to Manissean Native Americans, a beach concert prior to Block Island’s July 4 fireworks display, a concert of Colonial music played on period instruments, an Anniversary Barbershop Concert, a September 11 benefit concert for Block Island’s Volunteer Fire and Rescue atop the hill at the Sullivan House, a shipwreck party, and an Island Anniversary Fair. Events will take place from May through September and longer, if funding allows.
A keynote event of early summer is Founders Day, on Saturday, June 18. A re-dedication of Settler’s Rock at the north end of the island, where the founding fathers and mothers landed, will take place with local and visiting office-holders and dignitaries in attendance. Tours of the newly re-lit North Light and other events will take place throughout the day.

Spearheading the planning of events for the year is the Block Island 350th Anniversary Committee, a Town committee formed to plan and oversee the year’s events. The Committee receives its revenues solely through donations and sale of commemorative merchandise, and is a non-profit entity.

The last occasion of this magnitude on Block Island was the island’s tercentenary in 1961.

Find out more about upcoming 350th events at http://www.blockisland350.com/