Fort Lee School 3 to Celebrate Thomas Paine's Birthday

Patriot Thomas Paine lived in Fort Lee as both a soldier and war correspondent. In 1776 he wrote passages from his famous pamphlet The American Crisis as Washington and his troops camped in Fort Lee.

Fort Lee will celebrate Paine's 276th birthday with a celebration Tuesday, Jan. 29 at Public School #3. This annual celebration of Thomas Paine's birthday, organized by the Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, will include a Thomas Paine renactor who will speak to the students in the words of Thomas Paine.  

Also on hand will be Palisades Interstate Park historical troubadour Thaddeus MacGregor who will appear in period clothing and lead the students in songs from the period of the American Revolution.

This event is being held in conjunction of the ongoing Thomas Paine statue project of the Fort Lee Common Sense Society. The sculptor, David Frech of Beacon, New York, is working on the completion of the statue which the Society hopes will be within the next two years. The statue of Paine is going to be installed in Fort Lee's Monument Park.  

School #3 is located at 2405 Second Street near corner of Myrtle Avenue.