As the 1955 250th anniversary of Bath’s founding came, the town of Bath realized that it hadn’t made any plans to commemorate
the event. In May of that year, the people of Bath decided they needed to plan some sort of celebration. The mayor of Bath,
B. A. Brooks, called on Edmund H. Harding of Washington, North Carolina, to chair a committee to plan for a pageant. Harding
made ambitious plans which were helped along when in July the North Carolina General Assembly agreed to form a state Bath
Commission to help plan the event as well as provided some $2500 of the $4000 Harding estimated the celebrations would cost.
(The final cost actually ended up being $17,039.) In early October, having called on many prominent citizens in the state
as well as locals from throughout Beaufort County, the pageant, Queen Anne’s Bell, and attendant events were a success. Along with the locals, people such as Governor Luther Hodges, Secretary of State William
Blount Rodman, and best-selling historical novelist Inglis Fletcher played roles in the pageant.
