The 75th Annual Watts-Hillandale Fourth of July parade and Celebration will take place Thursday, July 4th, 2024, at 10 a.m., at Oval Drive Park, 2200 W. Club Boulevard, Durham.
This is Durham’s oldest Fourth of July celebration. Learn about other 4th of July celebrations in the Triangle.
The following information is provided by by the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association:
It‘s the oldest public Independence Day celebration in Durham. It’s the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood July 4 Parade and Celebration. This will be its 75th year without interruption. What began as a neighborhood affair has become an event for the whole Durham community. Hundreds turn out from the neighborhood, from all over town, and from all around the country. Everyone is welcome!
Preparations begin at around 8 on the morning of the Fourth. To many, this is the best part. Volunteers gather in Oval Park. They festoon the playground with hundreds of U.S. flags and flags from every state and nation. Teams rush from tree to tree with ladders and clothesline to get the flags up in time for the parade. The result is magnificent. Some of the flags are whoppers – as long as 18 feet! Some of them are real heirlooms. One giant antique has 45 stars, the number of states in the union when the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood was founded in 1908. Another has a giant “V” for victory at the end World War II. Yet another served as pall for a soldier killed during the First World War.
By 9:50, deputies from the Sheriff’s office have arrived. Sheriff Burkhead is a big supporter of the parade. The motorcycle squad will be there and deputies will help direct traffic to keep the marchers safe. The Fire Department will be there too. The firetruck that will lead the parade is in position. The color guard, usually a group of elected officials and local kids drafted on the spot, move to the front. The people, hundreds of them, assemble along Oakland Avenue. They have dressed for the occasion. Everyone is in red, white, and blue. There are one or two Uncle Sams. Trikes, wagons, strollers are decked out in crepe paper. There is a pretty convincing chicken-wire-and-tissue-paper Statue of Liberty. And more flags. Lots of flags. When everybody is ready, a ring of the cow bell and a brief blast of the fire engine’s siren give the signal to march the parade begins. Down Club it goes to Alabama. Then along Alabama to Woodrow and from there, back to the park. Neighbors line the streets and cheer!
Back in the park, the crowd gathers around the flagpole while a brand-new U. S. Flag is run up to the top. Everyone recites the Pledge of Allegiance – usually led by a visiting dignitary. After that, the O.K. Chorale leads the marchers in song – starting with their stirring a cappella rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ The chorale, a group of neighbors and their talented friends from all over town, has led the singing for years now. When they take their places, the boisterous crowd quiets to a hush to hear the beautiful harmony.
Finally, the event ends with an ice-cold Coke served in the nostalgic little glass bottles. Everyone is home in time for a cookout, siesta, the Festival for the Eno, or fireworks downtown.
The event started in 1950 at Alice and Tom Walker’s house at the corner of Virginia Avenue and Club Boulevard. In an era with no T.V. and no air-conditioning, the neighborhood kids, hot and mopey, complained about having nothing fun to do. Young mother Alice Walker proposed an idea, “Why not have a parade?” Why not indeed! She set the kids to decorating their trikes and bikes with red, white, and blue crepe paper. Husband Tom produced a flag. The kids, there were just a handful that year – Tallys, Cobles, Montgomerys, Bakers, and the Walkers, of course, marched one block down the sidewalk along Club and back again. It was fun! So much fun they did it again. Then back to the Walkers’ yard where they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang songs, including ‘America the Beautiful.’ Alice was a distant cousin of Katherine Lee Bates, the woman that wrote it. We still sing it today.
The proceedings always have closed with a cold drink. In the 1950s and 60s it was a bottle of pop, then a real treat. The Walkers’ daughter, Susan Walker Gardner, recalls, “I remember the night before [the parade], all the parents would bring drinks by our house and Daddy would ice them down…. In those days there were a lot of different kinds of soft drinks – more than there are today. It was wonderful to see them all together – I could hardly stand it. To make the wait bearable, Daddy would let us pick out the one we would drink the next day.” Soft drinks are still part of the program. The folks at Coca Cola Bottling Company supply Cokes in the nostalgic little glass bottles everyone loves. The company’s offices are located on Hillsborough Road in the neighborhood. We still ice them down in big steel tubs. People sometimes take the bottles home as souvenirs.
The event grew. Soon the sidewalk was too narrow, so Tom Walker got a motorcycle cop to close Club Boulevard so the kids and their parents could march in the street. The back yards grew too small so the singing and cold drinks moved to Oval Park. The homemade decorations became more elaborate as families began to prepare days in advance. Mothers made special red, white, and blue outfits and much paint and posterboard were expended in making homey floats and placards. In 1959, when Alaska joined the union, Tom got a 49-star flag and the next year he went out and got another flag when Hawaii became the fiftieth state. Now, more than 70 years later, those delicate, original flags are carefully unfurled to lead the parade. Flags have always been a very important part of the event. Tom asked people to bring not only their U. S. Flags, but also flags from their home states and home countries. He wanted to stress the e pluribus unum idea from the Great Seal of the United States – from many, we are one.
The Watts Hospital-Hillandale Annual July 4 Parade, intimate and friendly, represents the better part of patriotism and America at its best. It may be a little corny, but it has an old-fashioned reassuring dignity. It is a tradition literally handed from generation to generation. It is a family thing. It is not unusual to see four generations of marchers from a single family present at a Watts-Hillandale Fourth. Families who can’t get together at Christmas will not miss the Fourth of July together in Oval Park.
Everyone is invited. Everyone is welcome. So, mark the date and time on your calendar. Buy your crepe paper. Hang out your flag. This year’s Watts-Hillandale Fourth of July will be special.
Tip: This is a very colorful event. The camera loves the hundreds of flags festooned from the trees and the marchers in their red, white, and blue. Photographers often come around 9 a.m. to get photos and footage of the volunteers hanging the flags in the park.
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More 4th of July Events in the Triangle
Read about all the July 4th fireworks, celebrations and parades in the Triangle. Or look at a quick list here:
