A family picnic, Revolutionary War reenactments, walking tours and more are planned for a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, at Stanton Park. The rain date is June 27.
Planned and hosted by the National Park Service and Revive Stanton Park, the event will feature a U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps performance, demonstrations of what a Continental Army encampment was like, and the story of Major Gen. Nathanael Greene, who is known for his command in the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War.
Games and reenactments are planned by the Maryland First Regiment revolutionary era reenactors and National Park Service Rangers, and Capitol Hill Restoration Society volunteers will lead walking tours between Stanton Park and Seward Square.
To receive notifications or if you’re interested in volunteering at this event or in other Stanton Park activities, send your name and email address to revivestantonpark@gmail.com.
Stanton Park, located at the intersection of Maryland and Massachusetts Avenues, was marked “No. 5” on Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for the city of Washington. The earliest reference to the name Stanton Square was in an 1871 report by the Army Corps of Engineers, which at the time had responsibility for D.C. public buildings and grounds. Edwin M. Stanton had served as Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of war and had died in 1869. It is Stanton who is credited with saying, “Now he belongs to the ages,” after Lincoln’s assassination.
Stanton Square became Stanton Park after the land was improved, beginning with the 1878 placement of the equestrian statue of Greene, for which Congress had appropriated $40,000 four years earlier. Then in 1879, it was graded and laid with paths.
1887 Hopkins atlas.