This year is a special Independence Day as America celebrates its semiquincentennial, or 250th birthday. Events are planned across the nation highlighting America’s history and spirit, including right here in Cleveland. Here are some ways to celebrate America’s 250th birthday – from the patriotic to the inspired.
Attend an official America250 event
- When: June 27, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
- Where: Canal Basin Park, 989 West Street
- Details: Picnic in the Park will feature games, activities and entertainment connecting Cleveland history with American history. This is part of Canalway’s Cleveland History Days.
Explore Cleveland’s African-American Museum
- When: June 27, 11 a.m. – noon
- Where: The African-American Museum, 1765 Crawford Road
- Details: Members of the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers do a Toni Morrison storyteller event.
Celebrate the history of American infrastructure at the Cleveland Railroad Festival
- When: June 27, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
- Where: Midwest Railway Preservation Society, 2800 West 3rd St.
- Details: Check out historic steam locomotives and other transportation artifacts on display and up and running at the Historic B&O Roundhouse and railyard.
Listen to American history through music
- When: July 1
- Where: Cahoon Memorial Park Gazebo, 27600 Lake Road, Bay Village
- Details: This concert performed by the Akron Symphonic Winds, featuring official America250 music and narration, will tell the story of America’s history.
Watch America history on stage
- When: July 3 – July 5
- Where: The Clague Playhouse, 1371 Clague Road, Westlake
- Details: The Clague Playhouse presents a weekend of historical and educational performances. Learn about America’s earliest first ladies, Stagecoach Mary (the first Black female mail carrier), and Native American guide Sacagawea in several patriotic shows July 3 – 5.
Prep for your Independence Day celebrations
- When: July 3
- Where: Cleveland Public Library, Mt. Pleasant branch, 14000 Kinsman Road, and Addison branch, 6901 Superior Ave.
- Details: Kids can prepare for Independence Day with these free events at the Cleveland Public Library. Make your own paper fireworks at CPL’s Mt. Pleasant branch. Older kids are invited to the Addison branch to make their own patriotic buttons and watch the film “Independence Day.”
Check out the best local fireworks
- When: July 4
- Where: Various locations
- Details: You can take in some of the Cleveland area’s most popular fireworks displays at Lakewood Park, or head to Berea’s Grindstone Festival at Coe Lake. Catch multiple fireworks shows as some cities, like North Olmsted, are hosting them on days that are not July 4th.
Tour the Cleveland Gray’s Armory Museum
- When: July 18, noon to 4 p.m.
- Where: 1234 Bolivar Road
- Details: Tour the historic armory museum and hear songs from the Civil War. Kids can play old fashioned games.
Visit the Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument in Public Square
- When: July 19, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Where: 3 Public Square
- Details: A Descendents Day celebration featuring a picnic and the descendants of those honored on the monument’s walls.
Learn about the history of money in America
- When: Monday – Wednesday, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Where: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Education and Learning Center, 1455 E. 6th St.
- Details: The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland offers guided and self-guided tours and even has a 23-foot-tall money tree.
Learn about the history of contraception
- When: Monday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Where: Dittrick Medical History Center at tThe Allen Memorial Medical Library, 11000 Euclid Ave.
- Details: Case Western Reserve University’s Dittrick Medical History Center holds an unusual collection: the history of birth control. The collection includes early device prototypes, an exploration of folklore methods, and the context for contraception’s existence in American history and culture.
Take a trip back to life in the 1800s
- When: Saturdays through October, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Where: Stearns Homestead, 6975 Ridge Road, Parma
- Details: Visit the two homes on the last working farm in Parma, one built in the 1850s and the other in the 1920s, to learn more about American life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. You can even feed the animals.
Learn about the Underground Railroad
- When: Saturdays, noon – 4 p.m.
- Where: The Cozad-Bates House Interpretive Center, 11508 Mayfield Road
- Details: The center offers both national and local context for the history of the anti-slavery movement. Learn more in our story.
See a fashion exhibit
- When: Through Sept. 6
- Where: Western Reserve Historical Society, 10825 East Blvd.
- Details: The “American Dream: Immigrants and the Business of Fashion” exhibit displays the works of four Jewish immigrant women who changed the landscape of American fashion in the early 20th century.
Rock n’ roll, America
- When: During Rock Hall hours with a timed admission ticket
- Where: 1100 Rock & Roll Blvd.
- Details: Visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to experience more than 70 years of American music history and culture. Residents of Cleveland get in free.
Visit a national park or historic site
- When: During location hours
- Where: Multiple sites
- Details: Northeast Ohio is home to one National Historic Site and one national park. Visit the James A. Garfield home in Mentor (his tomb is at Lakeview Cemetery), or the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, about a 45-minute drive outside Cleveland. [Listen in as Signal Cleveland’s Gennifer Harding-Gosnell takes a tour of the Garfield home just in time for Halloween.]
See Woodland Cemetery’s salute to Civil War soldiers
- When: During cemetery hours
- Where: 6901 Woodland Ave.
- Details: Woodland Cemetery is home to a Civil War Soldiers’ Lot and four Civil War-era cannons.
Support the U.S. Men’s National Team by attending a World Cup watch party
- When: Various locations
- Where: Various dates
- Details: Signal Cleveland has put together a list of all the great places around Cleveland you can go to watch World Cup soccer. The U.S. plays next on June 25.
Take a few minutes to appreciate Marvin Gaye singing the National Anthem
- When: Anytime
- Where: Right here
- Details: It’s known as one of the greatest renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” of all time, from the 1983 NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles.
