Waterford Heritage Days celebrates history, community with parade, fireworks, reenactments

Dana Massing, Erie Times-News
·3 min read

With links to George Washington, Strong Vincent and more, Waterford is a place full of history.

Residents and visitors will celebrate that history and also showcase what else the community has to offer in this weekend's Waterford Heritage Days. The observance runs Friday through Sunday in the parks in downtown Waterford.

"Waterford Heritage Days is more than just the event, it's to showcase what Waterford has to offer and all the local businesses that are in Waterford," Dawn Brown, Waterford Heritage Days president, told the Erie Times-News earlier this year. "This really is a community effort."

The event was started in the 1970s by the Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society and has been run over the years by a number of people and groups, according to the Waterford Heritage Days website. Brown said the society was looking for another nonprofit to stage this year's days. She said she chose to take it over for the Veterans Miracle Center of Erie, which is a "sister" to her Waterford-based business, Legacy Hydroponics. Veterans organizations will benefit from this year's celebration, which will feature a keepsake program booklet with ads purchased by local businesses, she said.

"Waterford wouldn't be the same without the event," Brown said via email in April.

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The 2023 Waterford festival will include historical reenactments, a parade, car show, beer tent, music by local performers, a fire dancer, fireworks, a kid zone, adult and junior vendors, and more, Brown said.

Frank D'Aurora, with the French Creek Living History Association, brushes apple juice onto a ham he was roasting during Waterford Heritage Days in 2019.
Frank D'Aurora, with the French Creek Living History Association, brushes apple juice onto a ham he was roasting during Waterford Heritage Days in 2019.

What's on the schedule?

Details, as found on the Facebook page for Waterford Heritage Days, include:

  • The celebration will take place Friday, 3-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Sunday, 10-a.m.-5 p.m., in the parks in downtown Waterford and in various other locations.

  • Musical entertainment will include Jake's Blues on Friday from 8 to 9:30 p.m. and Six Year Stretch on Saturday from 8 to 9:30 p.m., both in the Stancliff Hose Co.'s beer tent. Other performers will appear throughout the weekend.

  • The parade will be Saturday starting at 10 a.m., followed by a car show in the ballpark.

  • Fireworks will be set off Saturday at 10 p.m. at the ballpark.

  • A Kids Zone will be set up all weekend in the ballpark and various food and crafts vendors will be open all three days.

  • Reenactment camps will be open Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., on the Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society campus.

Members of the Fort LeBoeuf High School Marching Band participate in the Waterford Heritage Days parade on July 21, 2018, along Cherry Street in Waterford.
Members of the Fort LeBoeuf High School Marching Band participate in the Waterford Heritage Days parade on July 21, 2018, along Cherry Street in Waterford.

On the history side, visitors to Waterford can see the statue in Washington Park of America's first president, who was just a 21-year-old major in the Virginia militia when he arrived in Waterford in December 1753 to tell the French they were trespassing in British territory.

A couple blocks from the park, at East First and Cherry streets, is a memorial to Vincent, a U.S. Civil War hero and brigadier general, who was born in 1837 on the property there in a house that later burned down.

Admission to Waterford Heritage Days is free. Find more information at waterforddays.com or facebook.com/waterforddays.

Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Waterford Heritage Days celebrates history, community