METHUEN — George Washington will turn 291 on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
The First Church Congregational in Methuen has been celebrating that anniversary for the last 140 years with a George Washington Birthday Dinner, which this year will be held on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 4 to 6 p.m.
This 141st observance will also mark the first time that the event has been held after it was canceled in 2021 because of the pandemic.
In 1881, when the first Washington Birthday Dinner was held, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as president after James Garfield was assassinated. That year also saw the death of Billy the Kid, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first concert.
But it was also the year that Phillips Chapel, where the first Birthday Dinner was served, was built right next to First Church.
“At that time, they initially cooked meals at home and brought them in,” said Marilyn Peck, who helps to organize the dinner today.
Roberta Barlow, who grew up in Methuen and now lives in Windham, N.H., remembers going to the Washington dinners in Phillips Chapel when she was four or five years old.
“The children were fed in the upstairs room of the building, which had a grand staircase that narrowed as it went to the top,” she said. “As kids we would come down the stairs a little bit and look into the main area of Phillips Chapel, with long rows of tables. You could see the adults and look for your parents and then go back up the stairs into the children’s room. It’s a very good memory. That would have been back in the 1950s.”
After 81 years in Phillips Chapel the dinner moved into the church’s parish hall in 1963, when that structure was completed and where the dinner has been held ever since.
“They did it initially for the business community, for a lunch,” Peck said. “It’s been a combination of a fundraiser and an opportunity for us to interact with the community and an opportunity for us to work as a community, because probably 60 people volunteer and we serve about 300 people at this point.”
Barlow said that, after so many years of attending the dinners, she associates the event with feelings of patriotism, loyalty, friendship and community.
“Those four things are so evoked by the whole thing,” Barlow said.
If all that history doesn’t help someone work up an appetite, looking at the menu for this year’s meal should do the trick.
The dinner features one carving station that serves turkey breast with cranberry sauce and gravy, another offering baked ham with raisin sauce or horseradish mustard sauce, and a third serving baked haddock with seasoned crumbs, Ritz crackers and butter.
Along with salad, rolls and antipasto, the side dishes include butternut squash, green beans, macaroni and cheese, vegan chili, mashed potatoes and stuffing.
“All that for 20 bucks,” Peck said.
Tickets are $20 in advance at 978-687-1240 and $22 at the door. Parties of nine or more should make reservations at the same number.
Turkey was the main item on the menu for most of the dinner’s history, and the meals were either served plated or family style, with platters set on the tables.
But a kitchen was built along with the parish hall, which meant the dinner no longer had to be cooked at parishioners’ homes. The menu expanded in 2017 when former kitchen manager Pat Romano started serving a buffet, after the parish hall and its kitchen were renovated.
Carol Sanborn, who assisted Romano and is running the kitchen for the first time this year, will start shopping on Friday, Feb. 17 for most of the items they are cooking. Prep work such as chopping vegetables begins a few days in advance of the dinner.
“Normally we have about five or six people in the kitchen,” Sanborn said. “I like to keep it only that many because it can get crowded, and it’s easier if there are less people in there.”
Along with the food, the dinner always features volunteers who dress up as George and Martha Washington, a tradition that started more than 35 years ago. The hall is decorated with plenty of red and white bunting and balloons, and there is music from a fife and drum along with festive artwork on the walls.
Sanborn got married in the church 12 years ago, and likes the outreach that they do, which goes “very deep in the community.”
She also likes the fact that the George Washington Birthday Dinner captures the history of the church, which was first organized in 1729 and is closely linked with the founding of Methuen.
“What a cool thing, to celebrate the first president that our congregation saw,” Sanborn said. “It’s such a strong tie to the people who founded our church and the people who founded our country.”