For nearly two centuries, Greenport has celebrated George Washington’s birthday with a parade down Main Street. This year’s 181st installment steps off Saturday, Feb. 14, at 1 p.m. from the intersection of Main Street and Knapp Place.
The parade draws hundreds of residents and visitors to the village each year, continuing a tradition that predates the Civil War. This will be the 154th year of the Greenport Fire Department’s involvement in organizing the event.
The parade and the celebration that follows at the Greenport firehouse are not only village staples, but a multigenerational tradition.
“It didn’t start out as a fireman’s parade; It started out because they really liked George Washington,” Bernie Purcell, a longtime volunteer village firefighter, said with laughter. “Some people in the village don’t realize their own history. Basically, the village started the parade, and the fire department showed up.”
The village and the nation’s first president have quite an intertwined history. In 1757, long before the American Revolution, he visited Booth’s Inn in Greenport, before it was known as such. The village used to be called Winter Harbor, and later became Stirling, named after Mr. Washington’s general, William Alexander, who was also known as Lord Stirling.
A tradition that began in the early 1900s, after the parade, would be a Grand Fireman’s Ball, hosted in the old Greenport Auditorium on Main Street, Mr. Purcell said. The traditional dinner, he said, would be scallops, eels and clam chowder. The department still makes and serves clam chowder at the firehouse after the parade, along with hosting some friendly games.
Mr. Purcell said that anyone who is interested in seeing old pictures of the parade is welcome to come check them out at the firehouse.
The long-standing ritual draws residents, families and visitors out to the street. Kids are on their parents’ shoulders, waving at the marchers. Sounding sirens, blaring bells and horns, and echoing bagpipes fill both people’s ears and the village’s streets. Sometimes, it even snows.
Mr. Purcell said crowd size may have shrunk a tiny bit recently, but he hopes the yearly event goes nowhere soon. “It’s your parade,” he said. “The people of Greenport actually have a parade of their own.”
The Greenport Fire Department, each year, joins forces with the other nearby departments, auxiliaries, community groups and volunteers, both in the parade and behind the scenes, to ensure the march and the post-parade celebration run smoothly.
“The village has had a great tradition going on, for 181 years now, of this very special parade by our volunteer fire department,” Mayor Kevin Stuessi said. “I’m looking forward to seeing folks out.”