ARUNDEL — Of all the things that we live by and teach our children, at the top of the list is our heritage and our history and that’s about to to be celebrated once more in Arundel.  

The 5th Annual Heritage Day will be observed in Arundel from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16 at the North Chapel Common site at the corner of Route 111 and Limerick Road.

The event celebrates the rich history and small town charm of Arundel and is a family friendly event that promises fun, exhibits, food and plenty of old-fashioned neighbor to neighbor spirited competition in comfortable surroundings.     

There will be exhibits and events from past Heritage Days including crafts, wool spinning, wagon rides through the fields, working old engine demonstrations, and a bevy of agricultural displays.

For children there will be opportunities to pet animals and many entertaining games.

Adults will enjoy food, music (one of which is a ukelele band), local vendors, canning info, and much more.

New to the event this year will be an apple-pie baking contest to be judged by discriminating palates from the community.

Returning will be the popular “Reminisce Tent,” which contains historical displays and artifacts from Arundel’s past.  Event organizers say the “Reminisce Tent” is always a favorite gathering place for friends and neighbors to catch up with each other. 

Festivities will also include a Boy Scout encampment with beanhole beans, coleslaw, and cornbread for sale.  

Now considered one of the fastest growing towns in Maine, Arundel’s history remains entrenched in its rural roots. 

In the mid-1600s, the community’s first settlers kept near the ocean both for easy access to the ocean and to escape from hostile Native Americans. The settlers abandoned the settlement in the late 1600s and did not return until about 1720 when relations with nearby Native American tribes improved.

The new settlement was named Arundel and grew along the Kennebunk River. Sometime after 1750 settlers began to move west of what is now Route 1 and set up farming in the community.

By 1800, numerous small churches were formed to draw local farming families together and several of the early farms and a few of the early farmhouses can still be found in Arundel today. 

The Town of Arundel’s secession from Kennebunkport became official in 1916 and the community remains essentially rural to this day. 

The 5th Annual Heritage Day is free and open to the general public and plenty of free parking will be available. 

For more information, call 283-9699.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com