The annual reading of the Declaration of Independence could simply not take place on the Village Green in the oppressive July 4 heat.
So one hour before it was to start, organizer Doug Carey was setting out chairs in the Rye Free Reading Room, grateful to the library for allowing everyone in. From there, Rye residents poured in, taking every one of the approximately 75 seats while more than 30 stood around the perimeter.
As they have every year since 1974, Rye residents and Rye Historical Society members reenacted Rye history and read the Declaration of Independence out loud. The event originally was organized by former Mayor John Carey and now is carried on by his son Doug Carey.
Carey portrayed Ebenezer Haviland, the barber and doctor who together with his wife, Tamar, ran The Square House during the Revolutionary War period. As Carey told the crowd, “We are here to collectively remember our origins, from 1773 to 2026.”
The program included re-enactments of key moments in American history, and organizers handed out copies of The Rye Record’s recent special section on Rye’s history from the Revolutionary War period.
Among the highlights:
The Rev. Matt Stone of Christ’s Church recalled the church’s history and noted that its first minister, Rev. Avery, was killed mysteriously during the Revolution. “Freedom,” he said, “was never meant to be kept, but shared…it is unfinished work.”
Rye resident and U. S. Rep. George Latimer read from publications of the time about the blocking of the Boston port. “No man shall be taxed except by his own consent,” he read.
Rye Councilmember Marion Anderson read “On Virtue,” by Phyllis Wheatley, widely considered the poet laureate of the Revolution, who was brought to Boston enslaved at age 8 from Gambia. In 1773 Wheatley became the first black woman to publish a book in the colonies, and only the second woman to publish a book there.
Carey and Susie Morrison as Ebenezer and Tamar Haviland reenacted an imagined conversation about representation in Parliament and independence.
Lucy Cummings read Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Mat Kendall read Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to the 77th Congress, which included the four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
The Hon. Beth Griffin Matthews played 1950’s-era U. S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who stood up to U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
The music historian Scott Maestro Wenzel played Sousa marches and spoke about Louis Armstrong’s influence on American music.
David Barton read President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech from 1961, intoning, “So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.”
Rye resident David Walker recited Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
Rye resident and Rye Record contributor Howard Husock re-created President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, declaring “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Ingraham Taylor of the Mt. Vernon NAACP branch read the 2021 poem “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gordon, who delivered the poem as the nation’s youngest inaugural poet at President Joseph Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
And finally, 27 people including Rye Town Supervisor Gary Zuckerman and Rye Mayor Josh Nathan read the Declaration of Independence.
Reflecting on the day, City Councilmember Jamie Jensen, said, “I love this event. We live together more lovingly when we share and talk our histories together.”
Members of the audience unfurled a 48-star American flag as the crowd sang “This Land is Your Land,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” and “God Bless America.”
“This is what America is all about,” said Kendra Moran, who assumes leadership of the Rye Historical Society in September. “Our history is a living thing, past, present, and future.”
