19 th Annual Lafayette Birthday Celebration

Description

Fayetteville is invited to a birthday party! The Lafayette Society will host North Carolina’s official Lafayette Birthday Celebration September 8 and 11-12! It includes the Lafayette Trail Tour of sites Lafayette visited in 1825, rare Lafayette artifacts at Methodist University, a book and movie premier on Liberty Point Resolves at FTCC, and “Chat with an Author,” one of America’s top experts on Lafayette and the American Revolution. Lafayette Trail Tour tickets require advance purchase at City Center Gallery & Books, 910-678-8899. All other events FREE.

North Carolina’s official Lafayette Birthday Celebration, held annually in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will include several events during the week after Labor Day. The Marquis de La Fayette’s birthday has special significance in Fayetteville, which became the very first city named for him in 1783. All events except the guided tour of the Lafayette Trail are free and open to the public. 

The celebration kicks off Tuesday September 8 with “The Liberty Point Resolves – Legend, Book, Film” at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) in the Tony Rand Student Center from 12noon to 2pm. Joseph Westendorf, Local and State History Librarian at Cumberland County Library, will present the backstory on the Liberty Point Resolves, Cumberland County’s predecessor to the American Declaration of Independence. 

Joseph and his staff of researchers recently published their findings in The Voices of Resolve: The Patriots of Liberty Point. Their book is factual but enjoyable, and it includes fascinating details about the brave Patriots who signed the document. PBS documentary film producer Frank Boring will share the stage with Joseph to describe how he worked with FTCC students to transform the book into the first documentary film ever produced about the Liberty Point Resolves. Copies of The Voices of Resolve will be available for purchase and signing. 

The celebration resumes Friday September 11 at 6:30pm at Davis Memorial Library at Methodist University with an exhibit of commemorative souvenirs from Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of America that still survive 200 years later. When the French hero of the American Revolution was invited in 1824 to visit all twenty-four states, entrepreneurs churned out these souvenirs in varieties and amounts that would rival those of any rock star tour today. Methodist University holds the largest collection of such memorabilia south of Philadelphia! 

Guests will learn fun facts about the tour from speaker Alan Hoffman of New Hampshire, president of the American Friends of Lafayette. He published the first complete English translation of Lafayette in America in 1824-1825, written by Auguste Levasseur, who accompanied Lafayette on the tour. Two hundred years later, in 2024-2025, cities across the nation including Fayetteville reenacted the Farewell Tour. Commemorative items were once again at the forefront of festivities and some of these will also be on display. Hoffman will explain why Lafayette and his visit are still significant today. He sums it up best in his preface to Lafayette in America when he says Lafayette was “the noblest, most consistent, most principled and, in many respects, the most modern of all our Founding Fathers.” 

A reception at 6:30pm prior to the program will feature appetizers inspired by recipes from the first cookbook published in the United States, Mary Randolph’s 1824 The Virginia House-Wife. Lafayette certainly would have been served dishes out of this book two hundred years ago. 

The Lafayette Trail Tour will be on Saturday morning September 12 from 8:30am to 12noon, starting with complimentary coffee and croissants at the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry (F.I.L.I.) Museum, 210 Burgess Street in Historic Downtown Fayetteville. Major Bruce Daws will provide a fact-filled commentary as guests tour the places Lafayette visited in 1825, including a private tour of the Phoenix Masonic Lodge and photo-ops with his carriage! Tickets are $20 but space is limited and reservations are required. Purchase tickets at City Center Gallery & Books at 112 Hay Street or by calling 910-678-8899. 

Starting at 2pm, the public is invited to enjoy FREE birthday cupcakes (while they last) at City Center Gallery & Books. Author and historian Alan Hoffman will discuss Lafayette and the Enduring Struggle for Human Rights and Democratic Governments and ways his life and ideals relate to issues we face today. This is an informal “Chat with an Author” and guests can talk one-on-one with Hoffman from 2-4pm about Lafayette, or history in general. His books will be available for purchase and signing. There will also be other books on Lafayette and on the American Revolution, including books for young readers. Also…cool merchandise from the recent Farewell Tour Bicentennial!