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When First Fridays on Fourth returns this week, area residents will have the chance to enjoy two days of holiday-themed activities.
Friday night will be the regular July edition of the monthly street fair that stretches along Fourth Street between Adams and Washington streets. Those events will begin, as usual, at 6 p.m.
Then on Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m., the festival will open again, with activities leading up to the city’s annual fireworks display that will begin around 9:30 p.m. at Historic Fort Steuben.
There will lots of live music, vendors, area craft beer and kids activities, all happening under the theme of Salute to America and Independence Day, according to Marc Barnes, president of the Harmonium Society, the nonprofit group that looks to cultivate joy, music, art and hope in the community and which presents the event.
“There will be live music and local food, vendors and breweries throughout the weekend,” he said.
Among the offerings will be smashburgers being sold at the Steubenville Grocery Box. 173 N. Fourth St., he added. There will be many activities, including miniature golf and bounce houses.
Among the highlights of Friday’s events will be the annual Steubenville pie competition, Barnes explained.
“We’re asking residents to bake pies and we can see who can make the best pie in Steubenville,” he said.
Barnes added that there is a special twist to the contest.
“All of the judges are expectant mothers from Steubenville,” he added. “It’s a way of celebrating the fact that they are having children in Steubenville, which is a great thing.”
Fourth Street will remain closed Friday night in anticipation of Independence Day events, he said.
Super Saturday will feature numerous water-based activities, he said. There will be water balloons, water tables and squirt gun fights. Organizers also are working with the city fire department to be able to run sprinklers from hydrants in the area.
Activities will continue throughout the day, with a patriotic parade traveling down Fourth Street from the Sycamore Youth Center to the Grand Theater, he said. That parade will begin shortly before the fireworks and will include all of the city’s neighborhoods, churches, clubs and organizations showing off their red, white and blue.
Barnes said attendance at the first two events of the season has been good. While the May 1 event was greeted with showers, the weather for the June 5 edition was much better.
“Attendance was very good -- that is true,” he said. “We had beautiful weather, and that always helps. We’re seeing bigger crowds because people want to see each other, join together as a community, eat good food, enjoy a beer and just hang out.”
Many sponsors have shown their support for First Fridays on Fourth, including the College of St. Joseph the Worker, Carinci Law Office, Tri-State Financial Services and Youngstown State University.
Works of a couple of renowned artists who called Steubenville home -- Thomas Cole and William Joseph “Dard” Hunter -- will be on display, Barnes said.
Cole was born in Bolton-Le-Moors, Lancashire, England, in 1801, and had immigrated to the United States in the late eighteen-teens. By 1819, his family was in Steubenville and his father had set up a wallpaper business on Fourth Street.
According to Paul Zuros, executive director of Historic Fort Steuben and a historian, Cole experts believe it was in Steubenville that Cole decided to be an artist. His experience living and working in Steubenville helped him along the way to becoming a famous and celebrated American painter.
Known for romantic landscapes and historical paintings, Cole died in 1848 in Catskill, N.Y.
Hunter was born in Steubenville in 1883. His father, William Henry Hunter, was the publisher of the Steubenville Gazette.
Dard Hunter was an authority on printing, paper and papermaking. Among his most famous works was the 1923 book “Old Papermaking,” which he wrote, designed the type for, performed the typesetting on, made the paper it was printed on and printed and bound the finished product.
Only 200 copies of the book were made, and one ended up on display at the Smithsonian.
Number 104 of those 200 had an estimated value of $5,000 when it was appraised on a 2012 episode of “Antiques Roadshow.” In 2019, the Sherwin-Williams Color of the Month for October was Dard Hunter Green.
Barnes said they hope to be able to find a permanent location where the art can be displayed all year.
First Fridays on Fourth is another of he events that are part of Jefferson County’s America 250 celebration. Those began Saturday with Thunder in the Ville and continued Sunday with the veterans barbecue in Steubenville. Today is the Quaker concert in Dillonvale, Tuesday is the World War I Memorial concert in Toronto, Wednesday is Wednesdays in Wintersville, Thursday is the concert featuring the 1170 Jamboree Staff Band Reunion show at the Berkman Amphitheater and July 4 features fireworks in Steubenville and Toronto.