GRAND UNION FLAG RAISING KICKS OFF AT 11:30 A.M. ON JANUARY 1ST
238th Flag Raising commemorated atop Prospect Hill by City officials, residents, and “George Washington” on horseback.
- Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Historic Preservation Commission Director
Brandon Wilson announced that the 238th annual "Grand Union"
flag-raising ceremony at Prospect Hill Park will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 1,
2013, at 12 p.m. A processional led by a re-enactor portraying General
George Washington on horseback will leave from the City Hall Concourse, at 93
Highland Ave., at 11:30 a.m. As always, members of the public are invited to participate, and are
encouraged to wear traditional colonial clothing.
The
annual ceremony commemorates the raising of the nation's first official flag,
featuring 13 red and white horizontal stripes, atop Prospect Hill on New Year's
Day, 1776. At the time, Prospect Hill was a key site in a string of
fortifications created by Washington and the Continental Army in their siege of
British troops in Boston during the first year of the American Revolution. This
year, new historical research will be presented by Byron DeLear of the North
American Vexillological Association including an important discovery: the first
documentary evidence of the name of our nation-"United States of America"-was
written in George Washington's headquarters in Cambridge following the Prospect
Hill ceremony raising the "first flag of America."
The
afternoon's program will include songs, readings, and participants from the
Ancient and Honorable Company (first chartered in 1638), as well as the
Charlestown militia. This year's celebrations will once again include His
Majesty's 10th Regiment of Foot, which will be representing the British Army
and will deliver a message from King George III. The American Legion Post
19 Honor Guard will lead a military salute as a commemorative flag is raised
atop the Prospect Hill Tower.
Light
refreshments will be served, and miniature replicas of the Grand Union Flag,
both as a flag and a lapel pin, as well as colonial-era tri corner hats and
historic Somerville books commemorating the event will be available for
purchase.
The Prospect
Hill Monument is located at the intersection of Munroe and Greenville Streets
just north of Union Square.
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