Fourth of July
in Roslyn
Roslyn was just 15-years-old when the four-page Fourth of July program shown below was printed. Although still a rough and tumble coal town with 23 well-patronized saloons, city fathers envisioned Roslyn becoming one of Washington's major commercial centers. Population would soon peak with nearly 5,000 residents with the coal industry booming. An Opera House was constructed in 1903, because explained the Cle Elum Echo, "Roslyn intends to be abreast of the times."
The accoutrements of a sophisticated town included well-planned events on a grand scale and Roslyn leaders took up the challenge. Fourth of July was arguable the biggest event of the year with Cle Elum and Roslyn alternatively hosting the celebration.
The accoutrements of a sophisticated town included well-planned events on a grand scale and Roslyn leaders took up the challenge. Fourth of July was arguable the biggest event of the year with Cle Elum and Roslyn alternatively hosting the celebration.
Roslyn's 1901 Fourth of July program was an organizational feat featuring 30 different athletic events with cash prizes awarded to first, second and third place and $40 to the winning baseball team.
The most unusual feature was something called a Calathumpian Event which usually refers to something advant garde and discordant. It offered the second largest purse of the day - $25 - for the first place winner. We can only guess what the contestants performed - perhaps loud music by a one man band?
The most unusual feature was something called a Calathumpian Event which usually refers to something advant garde and discordant. It offered the second largest purse of the day - $25 - for the first place winner. We can only guess what the contestants performed - perhaps loud music by a one man band?
Foot races were popular events with contests for every age, gender and athletic prowess, even in bad weather. A crowd of men and boys crowding around Fourth of July contestants at the Roslyn Ball Field wear cool weather clothing reflecting the no-so-uncommon cold, windy days in early July.
"If there ever was a bad day," wrote the Cle Elum Echo in 1902, " the Fourth was certainly one. The piecing cold wind came down from the snow covered mountains and made people turn up the coat collars."
"If there ever was a bad day," wrote the Cle Elum Echo in 1902, " the Fourth was certainly one. The piecing cold wind came down from the snow covered mountains and made people turn up the coat collars."
Roslyn decorated the town for big events using the abundant natural resource close at hand. Evergreen trees line Pennsylvania Avenue's boardwalk in the above photo showing a circus parade just a few weeks before the 1903 Fourth of July celebration.
The one-mile parade included elephants and clowns and led to the circus tent erected somewhere in town. The one day show on Monday, June 22nd, featured a school of educated seals, 500 performing animals and "Hazardous Wild Animal Acts!" Eleven years later, a snake charmer who was part of a circus troupe performing in Roslyn, died from a bite from a poisonous snake and was buried in the Roslyn Cemetery.
The one-mile parade included elephants and clowns and led to the circus tent erected somewhere in town. The one day show on Monday, June 22nd, featured a school of educated seals, 500 performing animals and "Hazardous Wild Animal Acts!" Eleven years later, a snake charmer who was part of a circus troupe performing in Roslyn, died from a bite from a poisonous snake and was buried in the Roslyn Cemetery.
Two weeks after the circus came to town in June 1903, evergreen trees still line Pennsylvania Avenue for Roslyn's Fourth of July parade. The highlight was a float with the Goddess of Liberty and her attending 48 states represented by local girls dressed in white.
About 200 people from Ellensburg attended Roslyn's 1903 Fourth of July celebration, including their City Band pictured above on Pennsylvania Ave. The whole town of Cle Elum also came, according to the Cle Elum Echo, traveling to Roslyn on a stage line created for the occasion that shuttled folks every two hours and cost 25 cents. "No need to wait for trains," counseled the Echo. "Enjoy a fine ride behind a fast team."
Bands were an important part of any Roslyn event in its early years and parades were no exception. The musicians pictured above were probably part of the IOOF band followed by members of their lodge wearing the Odd Fellows distinctive white collar. Note the elevated wooden sidewalks crowded with onlookers on Pennsylvania Ave.
Roslyn and Cle Elum hosted their own Fourth of July celebrations in 1912, but Cle Elum's was not as big as some years, reported the Cle Elum Echo, and was a relatively quiet occasion. Roslyn, on the other hand, was known for noisy Fourths that began with shooting guns, blasting powder and banging anvils at sunrise and continued through the following day.
Parade contestants in the above photo gathered in front of Roslyn's Episcopal Church on 2nd Street, preparing for their march through town. Although we have no record of how many people watched the event, thousands of people lined the streets in 1909, according to the Cle Elum Echo, "the largest crowd ever assembled in Roslyn."
Parade contestants in the above photo gathered in front of Roslyn's Episcopal Church on 2nd Street, preparing for their march through town. Although we have no record of how many people watched the event, thousands of people lined the streets in 1909, according to the Cle Elum Echo, "the largest crowd ever assembled in Roslyn."
Just days after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo, the German Bakery float won first place in Roslyn's 1914 Fourth of July parade. Shortly after the outbreak of WWI one month later, the owners were asked to change the name of the bakery because of anti-German sentiment. The German Bakery consequently became the John Bardesono Bakery after its owner, John Bardesono.
Cars in Fourth of July parades were a novelty in the early 1900s, especially the one pictured above featuring an over-sized spread eagle hood ornament. Behind the car to the left - the Hartman Meat Market that today houses the Roslyn Cafe. The three-story building to its right no longer exists and dates the photo after the record-breaking snowfall of 1916 that tore second-story landings off structures lining Pennsylvania Ave.