Bristol, RI Shirts

Down the middle of Hope Street runs a stripe of red, white, and blue, and it stays there all year, by act of Congress. Bristol has held Fourth of July exercises every year since 1785, the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the country, and the parade became so central to the town's identity that in 1969 Bristol started painting the center line in patriotic colors; federal law was later amended so the stripe could stay. Here the Fourth is not a day, it is a season, opening in mid-June and building until the whole town lines the route. Our Bristol design follows the paint: the tricolor stripe running straight up the shirt like the street it was borrowed from, rooftops and harbor gathered along either side. It is the rare shirt you could use to give directions. Local Bristol businesses fall in line on this page as they join ShirtMap.