Original city of Houston flag to be restored
Frayed banner from 1915 was found in resident’s garage
For the past 100 years, a frayed and forgotten piece of Houston history has resided in a garage or a filing cabinet.
Now, an original city of Houston flag, slightly torn and worn, is headed to New Orleans to be restored. Upon its return, the bygone banner will take up a new residence in the Julia Ideson Library downtown.
Mayor Annise Parker announced the restoration project Wednesday and encouraged Houstonians to look through their own homes for could-be artifacts related to the city’s history.
“There’s no telling what somebody has in their garage,” she said.
Retired locomotive engineer Frank Descant found the banner in his deceased cousin’s garage. His cousin got the flag from his father, a neon sign company owner and avid memorabilia collector.
“We called it junk growing up,” Descant said of his uncle’s collection.
What he found in his cousin’s garage actually was the 1915 prototype for what would become
the official flag of the city of Houston.
“We looked at it and said maybe it’s from the ’50s,” Descant said. “I thought it was a nice thing to give to the city.”
He gave the “moth-eaten” cloth to Preservation Houston about a decade ago.
The group raised $3,500 to have the flag restored. The North American Vexillological Association kicked in the remainder of the cost in the form of a $500 grant.
The 3-foot-by-5-foot flag consists of a dark blue background, a single star and the original 1840s Houston city seal in the center.
Charles Spain, former president of the vexillological association, said the current city seal with a plow and locomotive hint at Houston’s aspirational nature.
“Houston had bigger ideas than what reality was even back then,” Spain said.
“They wanted a railroad, so they put a railroad on the seal and the railroad came.”
In 1915, Mayor Ben Campbell decided Houston should have its own flag and organized a contest to solicit submissions from the public. According to a Houston Post clipping from 1915, one design idea included an illustration of Houston as a meteor, “the head of the star of which was plowing its way through a sky of equal proportions of red and blue.”
The winning design was submitted by Major W.A. Wheeldon, a British ex-pat. The design, drawn by Mrs. J.W. Greenhill Jr., originally depicted the coat of arms of Sam Houston’s family. A panel of contest judges, however, substituted the city seal for the coat of arms, saying it was more forward-looking.
The Levy Brothers Department Store made the cotton prototype in May 1915. The full-size silk version was made in New York a few months later, and shown publicly for the first time at the city’s Independence Day celebration.
The new flag was not the only example of civic pride displayed that year. Municipal leaders also unveiled the official city song at the Independence Day celebration. Oliver All-storm, a Chicago native, received $5 for composing “Houston Municipal Song” set to the tune of the Irish ditty “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”
If you do not recall Houston’s flag, you are not alone.
“Virtually every city is going to have a flag,” Spain said. “It’s going to be so forgettable nobody knows it.”
He described most city flags as “seals on a bedsheet.”
The prevalence of flags and flag culture came about through the Industrial Revolution, which led to mass production of textiles, and the end of World War I.
“When those boys came back, there was a question of how to honor them,” he said. “American flag culture came as a result of the Great War.”
While Houston’s flag has faded from view, some cities have more iconic banners.
Chicago’s flag, for example, remains ubiquitous in the Windy City, from a patch on firefighters’ uniforms to flying at O’Hare Airport.
“You use these kinds of things to inspire people,” Spain said. “My question is, why do people in Chicago care so much and maybe why are people in Houston not as connected?”
Descant, for one, cannot wait to see Houston’s flag restored.
“Next time I’m in downtown Houston, I’ll go take a look to see if it’s hanging,’ he said. “I’m glad they could do something with it, rather than me just letting it sit there or hang on the wall.”
“Houston had bigger ideas than what reality was even back then. They wanted a railroad, so they put a railroad on the seal and the railroad came.” Charles Spain, former president of the North American Vexillological Association