Kutztown pulled out all the stops to celebrate its centennial from July 1 to July 7 in 1915. A full week of celebrations, including four parades, enveloped the borough in a way that is almost unimaginable today. In an era before the Internet, television, radio, and universal car ownership, there was very little competition for the attention of Kutztown’s citizens, making the celebration the top attraction for the East Penn Valley in 1915.
The celebration started on Thursday, 1 July with Education Day. The Kutztown citizenry valued education very highly. After all, they had built the 1892 Public School Building, one of Berks County’s crown jewels, through all private donations. A new high school was in the works with ground breaking scheduled for 1916, and the Normal School at the top of Main Street was a source of community pride. The centennial organizers could think of no better way to start the centennial celebration than to revere the education they held so dear. The day started with a series of speeches at the Normal School, then moved to the other end of town to watch the educational day pageant unfold in the Kutztown Park.
Industrial Day was the second day of the celebration on Friday, 2 July. Local industries and businesses formed a parade that snaked through the streets of Kutztown. The parade was delayed for an hour because of a severe thunderstorm, but that didn’t damper the participants’ or the onlookers’ enthusiasm. Three local bands (Fleetwood, Lenhartsville, and Topton) and Kutztown’s drum corps also marched.
Saturday, 3 July was Fireman’s Day. Fire companies from Berks and Lehigh Counties sent delegations to participate in the second parade of the week. The Kutztown Fire Company showed off its new fire truck, which arrived in town on 1 July. It saw action quickly, as it was needed to put out the brick works fire on Baldy Street on 24 July 1915.
Church Day (Sunday, 4 July) saw townspeople attending special services in the morning at their houses of worship, then making their way to the park for a community church service. One of the many sermons given by Professor Lewis Wagonhurst of Perkasie, who spoke these wise words, “Although Kutztown has fine churches, industries, and is located in the center of a rich agricultural section, its chief glory is that it is a great educational center. Men have gone out from here to enter every walk of life and have reflected much honor and credit to their town. Their success can largely be attributed to the stubborn determination of the Pennsylvania Germans to make good. But too much credit cannot be given to our schools for giving to our youths a wider scope of life and consequently for raising the moral standard of the community. We realize more and more every day that out of the development of the mind only can come the development of the soul. Our forefathers unfortunately did not have the opportunities for development we have, yet we sometimes hear people murmur at the present-day strides of the educational world. True it is, our ancestors got along real well with less education, but it is often a great inconvenience.”
“We are the heirs of all ages. Think of countless hundreds of men and women who labored and suffered to develop literature, science, art and music, so that the world might be a more pleasant and better place for us to live in. It is only a question as to whether we are willing to devote time and energy to fathom its intricate depths. After all wealth cannot enrich the soul, nor does the State value a man by the amount of money he is worth, but rather by the good he does as a citizen of the State, and in order to be worthy citizens we must have some degree of intelligence. Every generation ought to be better equipped for the battle of life than the preceding one. Every decade reveals new inventions and discoveries that help to make life more interesting.”
Fraternity Day (Monday, 5 July) featured the third and largest parade of the celebration. Fraternal organizations including over 2500 people from various eastern Pennsylvania communities created a parade over a mile long. Fraternal organizations formed the backbone of civic life in 1915. These organizations fully embraced the centennial celebration as a source of national pride.
The fourth and final parade occurred on Tuesday, 6 July with Reading and Allentown Day. Members of the Reading and Allentown communities organized a parade through the streets of Kutztown to celebrate “where Reading and Allentown meet.” The parade was a competition between the two cities, with judges rating marching groups, bands, and floats. Reading won the contest, which the 10 July 1915 edition of The Patriot explained was to be expected because Reading was so much larger than Allentown.
The final day of the celebration, Wednesday, 7 July, was Historical Day. A pageant depicting the life of Kutztown’s early settlers was presented in the Kutztown Park. The characters in the pageant were played, for the most part, by their descendants. The day also included a homecoming ceremony for Kutztonians who had moved to other communities.
The 10 July 1915 edition of The Patriot summed up the week: “The effects of the seven days of the celebration will be lasting and are hard to foretell. There are some things known that it has accomplished, and among them are: It has given the town more civic pride; it has demonstrated to the citizens that when they join hands to do something it can be done, and to a successful issue; it has given the town more good publicity than any other single or group of events in its history; it has brought to light much valuable history and the historical importance of this town and its early inhabitants; it has brought back to the town many old residents and natives who have added years to their lives in spirit by so doing; it has made the town known in a very favorable manner to many who never were here before; in short, it has been the best celebration and the most successful one ever undertaken and accomplished in this town, or, in fact, by any town of the same size in this part of the United States.” Let’s hope the 2015 bicentennial celebration does the same.
