SWAMPSCOTT — Local officials and residents gathered Wednesday evening outside Swampscott Town Hall to join a nationwide initiative to commemorate the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.
The country’s founding document was read publicly for the first time from the yard of the Pennsylvania Statehouse — today known as Independence Hall — in Philadelphia 250 years ago. Citizens gathered to hear the announcement that the 13 colonies had declared themselves “Free and Independent States”.
In similar fashion, state Rep. Jenny Armini and the Swampscott Historical Commission hosted a public reading on the lawn in front of Town Hall where another reading took place.
Armini presented the historical commission with a replica of the E. Russell of Salem copy of the Declaration. The original Salem broadside, printed in 1776, was among the copies that carried the Declaration’s words to communities across Massachusetts.
The reading was followed by the Swampscott by the Sea Concert Series, featuring Pick 6.