To celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Chestertown Tea Party (1774), and the inaugural program of the statewide Maryland 250 Commission, Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will host a commemoration of Chestertown’s most famous Revolutionary moment, co-sponsored by the Chestertown Tea Party Festival and the Maryland 250 Commission.
The May 23 event — which begins at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public — will be held on the historic riverfront, outside the colonial Custom House (101 S. Water Street, Chestertown), with a rain location tent at Wilmer Park. It will include remarks by state and local officials, including two members of the Maryland Governors’ Executive Council: Secretary of Planning Rebecca L. Flora and Secretary of Service & Civic Innovation D. Paul Montiero, Jr.
A talk on the fascinating history behind the Tea Party, musical performances, and food and drink are also on the docket for the day’s events. Special musical guests The High and Wides will kick off the event and play during the post-event reception.
Flora and Monteiro are members of the Maryland 250 Commission, which is organizing statewide commemorations of the nation’s semiquincentennial, culminating in 2026. The Chestertown event will be the first public program anywhere in the state to be sponsored as an official event of the Maryland 250 Commission.
Introduced by Washington College President Mike Sosulski, the celebration will include a talk by Adam Goodheart — the Starr Center’s director and a best-selling historian — on what actually happened in 1774. Goodheart will reveal a newly discovered 18th-century document that sheds new light on the fate of the famous tea. Steve Meehan, president of the Chestertown Tea Party Festival, will be honoring Chestertown Mayor David Foster with a commemorative plaque to be on permanent display at Memorial Park.
In May 1774, a ship carrying British tea arrived at the port of Chestertown and met with resistance from local patriots. Local tradition has long held that on May 23, the citizens stormed the ship and hurled the tea into the river, much like their brethren in Boston six months earlier. For many years, an annual Chestertown Tea Party Festival celebrating and reenacting the event has brought thousands of people to town each Memorial Day weekend.
Founded in 1782 as the first college chartered in the newly independent United States, under the personal patronage of George Washington, Washington College has always had a special connection to the American Revolution. Many participants in the 1774 tea protest later served as founding donors and trustees of the College.
For more information on this event and the rest of the Chestertown Tea Party Festival, please visit chestertownteaparty.org.
Other Washington College events during the Tea Party Festival
On Saturday, May 25, Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will offer exhibits at the Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project Mobile Museum Truck from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of the Chestertown Tea Party Festival. The truck will be behind the Custom House at 101 S. Water Street. Additionally, a walking tour of local African American history will start at 11 a.m. in front of the Custom House. The College also intends to have representatives in the annual Tea Party Parade.
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