“… a history that will invite scorn from everybody.”
When you start wondering about something, you never know just how far down the rabbit-hole you might end up. In this case, my curiosity about the municipal flag has taken me to the library numerous times, to City Hall three times, to Ace Flag once (and several phone calls before that), Buffalo Place, and to the website of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA). Not to mention a number of meandering walks about downtown.
What I learned was that our flag has something of a beleaguered past- and present. But my intention is to create a brighter future for it. To read what I learned, and what I want to do about it, click through below.
Past
Buffalo’s first flag was adopted by the Common Council in 1912. Then-mayor L.P. Fuhrmann had received a request from a publisher in NYC to provide them with a copy of the city flag graphic for a work which includes colored illustrations of the municipal flags of various larger cities. The mayor and Commissioner of Public Works, Francis G. Ward, proposed a flag composed of the City Seal superimposed on the State Coat-of-Arms all in blue upon the field of the flag in Continental buff. Shortly thereafter, the Ad Club submitted a competing design (by Charles Rohlfs: his house still stands today at 156 Park, between Allen and North.) This design was of a white bison in a field of blue, which is surrounded by a bar of white, and on the exterior, a bar of red. Ultimately, the Council adopted the mayor’s proposal as the official flag and the Ad Club’s as the official trade flag on July 15th, 1912.
Speculative image courtesy of D. Martucci/NAVA
Buffalo’s first flag was not exactly a success. In 1922, mayor F.X. Schwab remarked to the council that he did not feel that the adopted flag “sufficiently represent[s] the City of Buffalo.” He continued: “I have never seen the flag in use in this City, and I do not know that any flag has ever been made of the design.” At this time, the mayor proposed a flag design contest “open to all the residents of the city including the school children as well as the students at the Buffalo Art School.”
This contest yielded no winning design. On October 31st, 1923, chairman of the City Planning Committee George H. Norton reported that “while several of the designs submitted are inherently meritorious, these designs are, for the most part, complex and are not readily adaptable for reproduction for flag use or for decorative purposes.” A new contest was proposed, with a higher award. “The dignity of the city, with the significance of its history, demands a distinctive flag reflective of the past achievements and suggestive of the resources of the present and the potentialities of the future,” said Norton on March 5th, 1924.
Seventy-three designs were submitted in this contest, and the City Planning Committee (with input from the Fine Arts Academy) proposed that submission #16 be selected as the most suitable one (with certain modifications) for Buffalo’s new City flag because of it’s simplicity, distinctiveness and economy of manufacture. The award–$250–was given to local architect Louis Greenstein. Interestingly, his design was in fact a modification of his own prior design for the Old Home Week contest in 1907. This prior flag had been manufactured (by A.J. Binnie, who went on to start Ace Flag, still in business today) but never adopted as official.
At the flag dedication ceremony on June 14th, 1924 (Flag Day), mayor Schwab said that he hoped the flag, which exemplified the “energy and zeal behind the spirit of a new Buffalo” would be a point of pride for every Buffalonian:
“We can make it an honor to our people or we can give it a history that will invite scorn from everybody. To this flag must be given our highest respect and deepest affection. It signifies the love and admiration which every Buffalonian should have for his city as his home and the home of his friends. And hereafter, Buffalo’s flag and Buffalois community spirit are one and the same thing: as the flag and ourselves are identical and inseparable.”
Fast-forward to 1953. On February 25th, mayor Joseph Mruk was presented with a new flag for his office, complementing a new flag given to the City Council for the chamber the prior year. The next day, however, it was reported that the mayor’s flag was, well: wrong. Reader Harold Spog wrote the Courier Express to say that the flag the mayor posed with was short one star and one lightning bolt- 12, rather than the official 13. Original designer Louis Greenstein was located (then working in the Guarantee Building), and he confirmed that indeed, his winning design contained 13 stars–one for each of the original colonies–and a matching number of bolts, signifying the power of Niagara. Further reportage indicated that the flag given to the Council was flawed in the same way.
The error was ultimately attributed to the manufacturer. When the new flags were commissioned, permission was not sought to remove the existing flag from the mayor’s office in order to get the design, as the ‘Buffalo Know Your America’ committee (hey, it’s 1953, folks) wanted the gifts to be a surprise. Rather, the manufacturer sent someone to hand-copy the design, and they were not sufficiently careful in so doing.
One of these flags was never official; the other is just plain wrong.
Even with all this exposure, scant ten years later The Buffalo Evening News was reporting “The Official Flag Of Buffalo- Forgotten Symbol Of The City” (September 17th, 1963 p. D-8; by Tom Mitchell.)
“Ever notice the blue-and-white flag flying with the American flag in Niagara Square across from City Hall? Or the similar flag on City Court? Ever wonder what they represent? They’re Buffalo’s official flag. And most people don’t even know an official flag exists.”
Present
Today, we might say much the same thing. In fact, it has truly become worse- the flag no longer flies even before City Hall, of all places. According to the Common Council resolutions of 1924 (and restated in 1938), the flag should fly in front of “… every municipal building, every school and every branch library…” Moreover, according the the Council, an official copy is to be kept by the City Clerk’s office. However, when I went there to enquire as to the “official graphic,” I saw not a one on display, despite the fact that the office is positively festooned with national flags. And, they could not even readily supply me with the image, but rather had to call the printer, K. Knab of Orchard Park, who kindly mailed me the graphic.
While I did not peer into the Mayor’s office, I did take a look in the Council Chamber, where surprisingly, two, non-identical versions of the flag are extant. One, a great framed silk rendering, sits behind the council president’s chair. The other hangs on a flagpole in the right-hand rostrum. Both appear to have the center graphic in gold rather than the official white.
Elsewhere, I could find only 5 more locations where the flag, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, is displayed. Official versions fly at the B Precinct police station, (on the corner of Main and Tupper), and at the “5 Flagpoles” display at Division St. Unofficial versions (with “Downtown Buffalo” printed below the graphic) can also be found. Four are flying at the Rotary Rink, one in the Market Arcade Film Center, and one behind the offices of Buffalo Place, on Washington St. Further investigation revealed that it was Buffalo Place who last ordered flags–from Ace, as it happens–about two years ago now. Despite their efforts, however, the flag remains essentially invisible. It is easier by far to find a New York State flag, but I have to ask: when was the last time Albany did us any favors? The Canadian flag is similarly more common, but here I admit, it seems in keeping with our international outlook and “City Of Good Neighbors” attitude. That said, I wonder if we shouldn’t put ourselves first?
Future
I propose a “flag drive.” In talking to Ace, I discovered that getting a flag printed isn’t especially inexpensive- the opposite, in fact. To have a single one made would require me to shell out $180.00- well beyond this writer’s means. However, bulk orders reduce the price substantially- 100 or more would cost $38.75 each, but even an order half the size brings the price down to a modest $41.25 per.
How to organize such a thing? I’m not especially interested in dealing with checks, bank accounts, LLCs or lawyers. But, I was reminded of a post Figmo wrote not so long ago concerning the fundraising site Fundable.org. It seemed like the perfect vehicle for this idea.
So, I have set up a group action there, for the purpose of generating an order of 50 flags. Here’s where you all come in. Stop on by the website (how it works is explained there quite lucidly), and make a pledge. Fundable will not charge you a penny unless and until all 50 pledges (or the total- you can donate however much you want to the drive) are made, which we have 25 days to attain. The flags will be 3’x5′ in size, which is appropriate for a 6′-20′ flagpole or for flying from your porch. Ace informs me that the order will take approximately 4 weeks to process, which means we’ll all have our flags well in time for Flag Day, 2006.
Send the url for this post, or for the pledge, to your friends, family, neighbors, bosses, councilmember, etc. Organize a bake sale for your kid’s school, and pledge one for them. Pool your resources with your co-workers, and get one for the office. Let’s all do something small (but I think symbolically Fuccillo-sized) for the city that’s as easy as it gets- no petitions, no politicians, just the people- so that we might no longer have a flag which “invites scorn from everybody.”
The Fundable.org URL is here or paste-in: http://www.fundable.org/groupactions/flagsforbuffalo/.
This article could not have been written without the help of: D. Martucci @ NAVA; W.M. Smith @ Buffalo Place; the staff of the Grosvenor room; Sheryl @ Ace Flag, K. Knab, & the staff at the City Clerk’s office.
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