STEUBENVILLE — When First Fridays on Fourth returns this week, area residents will have the chance to enjoy two days of holiday-themed activities.

Friday night will feature the regular July edition of the monthly street festival along Fourth Street between Adams and Washington streets. Events will begin, as usual, at 6 p.m.

Then, on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m., the festival will reopen with activities leading up to the city’s annual fireworks display, scheduled to begin around 9:30 p.m. at Historic Fort Steuben.

There will be live music, vendors, local craft beer and children’s activities, all under the theme of “Salute to America” and Independence Day, according to Marc Barnes, president of the Harmonium Society, the nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating joy, music, art and hope in the community that presents the event.

“There will be live music and local food, vendors and breweries throughout the weekend,” he said.

Among the offerings will be smashburgers sold at the Steubenville Grocery Box, 173 N. Fourth St., Barnes said. There also will be miniature golf, bounce houses and other family-friendly activities.

Among the highlights of Friday’s festivities will be the annual Steubenville pie competition, Barnes said.

“We’re asking residents to bake pies and we can see who can make the best pie in Steubenville,” he said.

Barnes added that there is a special twist to the contest.

“All of the judges are expectant mothers from Steubenville,” he said. “It’s a way of celebrating the fact that they are having children in Steubenville, which is a great thing.”

Fourth Street will remain closed Friday night in anticipation of Saturday’s Independence Day festivities, he said.

Super Saturday will feature numerous water-themed activities, including water balloons, water tables and squirt gun fights. Organizers also are working with the city fire department to operate sprinklers from hydrants in the area.

Activities will continue throughout the day, culminating with a patriotic parade traveling down Fourth Street from the Sycamore Youth Center to the Grand Theater. The parade will begin shortly before the fireworks and will feature neighborhoods, churches, clubs and organizations showing off their red, white and blue spirit.

Barnes said attendance at the first two events of the season has been encouraging. While the May event was hampered by rain, favorable weather helped boost attendance in June.

“Attendance was very good — that is true,” he said. “We had beautiful weather, and that always helps. We’re seeing bigger crowds because people want to see each other, join together as a community, eat good food, enjoy a beer and just hang out.”

Many sponsors have shown their support for First Fridays on Fourth, including the College of St. Joseph the Worker, Carinci Law Office, Tri-State Financial Services and Youngstown State University.

Works by two renowned artists with Steubenville ties — Thomas Cole and William Joseph “Dard” Hunter — will be on display, Barnes said.

Cole was born in Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, England, in 1801 and immigrated to the United States in the late 1810s. By 1819, his family had settled in Steubenville, where his father opened a wallpaper business on Fourth Street.

According to Paul Zuros, executive director of Historic Fort Steuben and a historian, experts believe it was in Steubenville that Cole decided to become an artist. His experiences living and working in the city helped shape the career that made him one of America’s most celebrated painters.

Known for his romantic landscapes and historical paintings, Cole died in 1848 in Catskill, New York.

Hunter was born in Steubenville in 1883. His father, William Henry Hunter, was publisher of the Steubenville Gazette.

Dard Hunter became an internationally recognized authority on printing, paper and papermaking. Among his best-known works was the 1923 book Old Papermaking, which he wrote, designed the type for, typeset, produced the paper for, printed and bound himself.

Only 200 copies of the book were produced, and one is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Copy No. 104 was appraised at an estimated value of $5,000 during a 2012 episode of Antiques Roadshow. In 2019, Sherwin-Williams named Dard Hunter Green its Color of the Month for October.

Barnes said organizers hope to find a permanent location where the artwork can be displayed year-round.

First Fridays on Fourth is one of several events celebrating Jefferson County’s America 250 observance. The festivities began Saturday with Thunder in the Ville and continued Sunday with the veterans barbecue in Steubenville. Today’s event is the Quaker concert in Dillonvale, followed Tuesday by the World War I Memorial concert in Toronto, Wednesday by Wednesdays in Wintersville, Thursday by the 1170 Jamboree Staff Band Reunion concert at the Berkman Amphitheater and July 4 fireworks displays in Steubenville and Toronto.