The East Greenwich Tercentenary began with a funeral. In early summer 1977, a mock casket on a horse-drawn hearse went down Main Street for "Ray Zor," a send-off for the razor, according to Nanci Thompson of Briarbrook Auctions. Her father, Lew Thompson, walked behind it dressed as a clown and carrying a shovel. The organizers had ruled that men would grow mustaches or beards for the 300th, and men who wanted to keep shaving could buy a badge instead. Those badge sales helped pay for two weeks of events.
Forty-nine years later, the town is building the same kinds of events again: a parade, a formal ball, a historical show and a summer party. This time they are spread over thirteen months rather than fourteen days. The first one is Saturday, Oct. 24, and it sits a week before the town's real birthday.
The 1977 Celebration Was Two Weeks in July
The Tercentenary ran from Sunday, July 17, to Sunday, July 31, 1977. Every day had several events. It opened with a Tercentenary Horse Show at Goddard Park and a keelboat regatta at the East Greenwich Yacht Club. Over the next two weeks came an art show, a skateboard derby, two tennis tournaments, a carnival, a barbershop concert, a Yankee Steam-Up and a lobster boil. Planning was run from the basement of the old Kent County Courthouse, which is Town Hall today. Seven committees worked under the East Greenwich Tercentenary Commission.
Gil Hempel led the effort. He was head of the Chamber of Commerce and commander of the Kentish Guard at the time, and he explained the thinking to East Greenwich News in 2014:
"If you do something, you always do it bigger than you expect to do it because if you do it on a small scale, that's where you're going to end up – on a small scale."
The two weeks had three main events. The first was a historical musical, "On the Hill by Greenwich Cove," staged six nights in a row with a cast and crew of nearly 250. Future Gov. Don Carcieri was in the cast. The second was the Grand Tercentenary Ball, held July 23 under a large tent on Eldredge Field. About 1,400 people came. The music came from a New York bandleader with "his trunkful of music from Jimmy Dorsey" and local Rhode Island musicians he hired to fill out the orchestra. The third was the parade on the final day. It had 11 divisions and ran from Frenchtown Road to Division Street, and the Pendulum reported a crowd of more than 100,000.
The whole celebration happened in midsummer, three months before the town's founding date of Oct. 31, 1677.
EG350 Uses the Same Events on a Longer Calendar
The 350th organizers made a different choice about timing. "We thought, let's do a full year," said Rachel Arbige, project manager for EG350 and recreation manager for East Greenwich Community Services. "We wanted to kick it off a year prior and have events throughout the year."
Four signature events run through October 2027. The Heritage Festival opens the year. A spring gala follows, then a summer bash in September 2027, and the year closes with a Halloween Extravaganza on Oct. 30, 2027. A December 2025 call for volunteers, signed by Arbige and steering committee chair Matt Carcieri, described the gala as "a formal dance and community celebration" and the finale as a "parade and full day of festivities."
Set side by side, most of the 1977 events have a counterpart in the new year:
| 1977 Tercentenary | EG350 counterpart | When |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Tercentenary Ball, Eldredge Field, July 23 | Gala Ball, formal dance | Spring 2027 |
| Six-night pageant, "On the Hill by Greenwich Cove" | Film, "The Story of East Greenwich," screened hourly | Oct. 24, 2026 |
| Two weeks of summer events, July 17–31 | Summer Bash | September 2027 |
| 11-division parade, Frenchtown Road to Division Street | Colonial Halloween parade, Swift to Main Street | Oct. 24, 2026 |
| Final-day parade to close the celebration | Historic Halloween Extravaganza with a parade | Oct. 30, 2027 |
The parade now happens twice, once to open the year and once to close it, and both dates sit at the end of October. The founding date sets the calendar this time. Carcieri gave the town council the timing at a September meeting, describing the town as "just 1 year and 1 month away" from its birthday and saying the purpose of Oct. 24 was "to inaugurate the celebration."
Oct. 24, Hour by Hour
The kickoff is in 19 days. Here is the schedule as East Greenwich News laid it out:
- 10 a.m. A colonial-themed Halloween parade starts at Swift Community Center and heads down to Main Street. Trick-or-treating at Main Street businesses follows.
- Noon to 4 p.m. The Heritage Festival runs inside and outside Swift and on Academy Field. It starts with an opening ceremony and flag raising, then historical reenactors, a town crier, a petting zoo, crafts, demonstrations and food trucks.
- Every hour "The Story of East Greenwich," a new 20-minute film, is screened.
- 1 to 4 p.m. A special-edition EG350 beer brewed by Apponaug Brewing Company is poured at a beer tent for guests 21 and older.
The steering committee's council presentation added a pop-up museum at Swift. It also said the beer tent will be fenced, served by TIP-certified vendors and staffed by two police officers. EG350 merchandise will be for sale, including flags. So will new books on East Greenwich history and artwork by local artist Don Mong.
The festival coverage does not list the trick-or-treat stops, parade road closures or parking, the film's maker, or the name and style of the Apponaug beer. Organizers point people to the EG350 Facebook page and the EastGreenwich350 Instagram account to follow along.
The Band That Has Played Both Anniversaries
The Sliding Capos will play the festival in the afternoon, and Arbige pointed out their history. "The coolest element is that the Capos actually played for the 300th celebration," she told East Greenwich News, and she called the group the town's "local band of heroes." Accounts of 1977 don't say which Tercentenary event the band played. The connection is clear either way: some of the same musicians from the 300th will be on stage at Academy Field to open the 350th.
The 1977 celebration also left something still on view. That year, 47 women each stitched one square of a town quilt designed by local artist Arlene Ozalyn. The quilt measures six by eight feet. Its squares show the Varnum Armory, the Kent County Courthouse, the railroad station, sailing on the Cove and winter ice skating. The whole project took two months. The quilt hung on a rack at the Historic Preservation Society until a member arranged for it to be hung in the library. The quilt is a short walk from Saturday's festival grounds and shows how the town saw itself at 300.
The Volunteer Roles Are Still Open
The 1977 Tercentenary was intentionally built around wide participation. Hempel said "we tried to involve everyone in the community." EG350 is also run by volunteers, and it has more lead time to bring people in. The December 2025 call set up committees for fundraising, merchandise, a town-wide decorating effort, and advertising and marketing, along with one committee for each signature event. Each group reports monthly to the steering committee. The October 2025 kickoff presentation listed Kathy Burroughs, Renu Englehart, Mark Schwager and Andy Wade among the planners, alongside Carcieri as chair and Arbige as project manager.
Volunteer sign-ups for the later events will be available at the Heritage Festival itself. The town also has an EG350 volunteer application online. Questions go to Arbige. The gala, the September bash and the Oct. 30, 2027 finale still need people to plan them.
Many East Greenwich homes come with history of their own, from families who were here for the Tercentenary to houses that were already standing in 1927. If you own one of those homes and are thinking about what comes next for it, Amy Doorley-Lucas would welcome the conversation. Request a complimentary home valuation or schedule a private consultation.