Lexington's 300th: Planning a Celebration for the Ages

Proud as it is of its storied past, Lexington will also honor its present and future during a nearly yearlong 300th Anniversary Celebration kicking off this September and culminating Memorial Day Weekend of 2013.

A framework is shaping up with opening ceremonies beginning Sept. 22 of this year and closing ceremonies in the evening of Memorial Day, May 27 2013, but the people planning the festivities, members of the 300th Anniversary Celebration Committee, say there’s still room for volunteers and ideas to join the fun. A website promoting the events is in the works. Stay tuned for links.

Opening events, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22, include opening ceremonies at and , an all-town photograph, a country fair and “Dance Through the Years.”

The opening program will aim to showcase interesting people and performers in Lexington today and preview the celebrations ahead, said Jessie Steigerwald, a member of the 300th Committee.

A month later, on Saturday, Oct. 27, the committee will host “Breeches, Bloomers & Bellbottoms Oh My! A Musical Fashion Review” at Lexington High School.

“We’re not talking the catwalk here,” said Tanya Morrisett, an event organizer, promising something different. “It’s going to be a little something different.”

The dramatized fashion show will unfurl from the concept that kids in a classroom are presenting projects on fashion through the years and the subjects come alive as they’re presented. Dozens of teachers, town employees, beloved residents, re-enactors and high schoolers are participating in the show, committee members said.

Between the fashion show and the next scheduled official 300th events of incorporation weekend, the LEF Trivia Bee, William Diamond Five and Drum, Lexington Pops Chorus and DAR Genealogy Workshops are all expected to incorporate the town’s 300th.

Lexington’s actual 300th is March 31, 2013, but that’s also Easter.  So the “Incorporation Weekend” celebrations are scheduled for Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17, 2013.

Weekend events include a town-wide show of student work, a “History of Lexington” panel discussion, an activities panel with the Lexington Field and Garden Club, a “Technology in Lexington” panel discussion and a multi-cultural community dance.

Next up would be the 300th anniversary Patriots’ Day parade, which would take place on Sunday, April 14, rather than Monday, April 15. The basis for that decision is that more groups could participate with a Sunday parade than one held Monday on Patriots Day, which is not a national holiday.

The closing events as planned begin with Discovery Day on Saturday, May 25, an old-time baseball double-header on Sunday, May 26 and a morning parade, monument dedication, time capsule sealing and closing ceremonies on Monday, May 27, Memorial Day.

Throughout, the 300th Committee is hoping most, if not all, of the events have free admission, though some things, like the fashion show, will have admission charges to as fundraisers for the yearlong celebration. It’s also possible a fundraising gala will come together, committee members said.

Members of the 300th Celebration Committee said some of the core themes are for everyone in town to be connected to the 300th celebration and for there to be widespread understanding of what the connections from past to present means as the town transitioned from a farming community to a technological hub.