NE14JV Published by theNew EnglandVexillologicalA s s o c i a t i o n

Nº14May 2002

THE SEVEN CITY FLAGS OF CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIREby Dave Martucci

The Hunting of the FlagOn April, 25, 2002, my wife Janet

and I travelled to three New Englandcities for the purpose of flag research.The North American VexillologicalAssociation is working on compilingdata on the top 100 US cities bypopulation plus all of the State capi-tal cities for a special issue of RAVEN,our annual book/journal. We haddecided every state would have atleast two flags in the book, it’s capi-tal and largest city (or second larg-est if the capital is the largest).

Our mission was to visit the citiesof Concord, capital of New Hamp-shire; Montpelier, capital of Vermont;and Burlington, Vermont’s largestcity. Concord proved to be the mostinteresting city of these and althoughwe had come searching for only oneflag that we knew existed from writ-ten documents on the web, we foundnot one but seven flags!

I had done some research onlineand had located Section 1-2-3 of theConcord City Code that reads:

City Flag . The City flag shallbe of the design indicated be-low with or without the words“Concord” and “New Hamp-shire” as they appearthereon. The official designand color scheme of the flagwill be on file with the CityClerk.

The date of adoption given in theCode is 10 December 1979. Unfor-tunately, no illustration is providedwith the online code.

In case you’re counting, that makestwo flags, one with the inscriptionand one without. Both are official.

At City HallSo we began our in-person search at

City Hall, 41 Green Street, in the officeof the City Clerk, Janice Bonenfant,who is named in the code as custodianof the information. Her assistant had

been doing some searching in advanceof our visit because we had emailedthem but so far had not received a re-ply. All she had come up with for uswas a crude black-and-white photocopyof a page out of the City Codes that atleast had a sketch. It shows a flag of

dark-light-dark vertical stripes, with aConcord Coach and the inscription“CONCORD” arched over the top and“NEW HAMPSHIRE” arched below.Concord was long famous for the Con-cord Coach manufactory that made

stage coaches and other horsdrawn vehicles in the 19th Centur

The assistant was sure the coloof the stripes were probably bluand white but as for the other dtails, nothing had been found. ThClerk’s Assistant who helped us sashe had been meaning to go up the Council Chambers and see there is a flag there. Unfortunatela meeting was in progress and wwouldn’t be allowed to enter. Shpromised to look into that and lus know.

The Clerk’s Office also provided uwith an illustration of the City Sealso taken from the City Code, Aticle 1-2-1. (Article 1-2-2 providfor a temporary seal.) It reads:

The seal of the City shallbe in the form of a scroll,with the following device andinscription: A field encom-passed with a scroll; on thefield a view of the StateHouse, as existing previousto the 1909 enlargement;above, the inscription on,“Penacook, 1725,” with themotto, “The wilderness wasglad for them”; below, theinscription in scroll, “Con-cord Adopted City Charter,1853” the motto, “Law, Edu-cation, Religion.” The wholeshall be arranged accordingto the impression of said sealhereunto annexed.

It was also adopted on 10 December 1979 and no illustration is avaable on the web site.

After gathering that rather sparinformation, we decided to look

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around City Hall and maybe go tothe City Manager’s Office. In thehallway, we chanced upon a framedset of photos of each of the CityCouncillors and Mayor. Each ofthem was photographed next to aCity Flag! The photos, however,show the flag hanging from a poleand it was hard to make out anydetails. We quickly realized this flagwas not the one in the City Code. Athird flag!

We dragged the assistant out ofthe Clerk’s Office and she lookedover the photos. “That’s the Coun-cil Chambers,” she said. Again shepromised to look there for us whenthere was no meeting.

We proceeded to go upstairs to theoffice of City Manager DuncanBallantyne. Just inside the doorstands a City Flag! We found it! It isindeed different than the one pic-tured in the Code, having only two(unequal) vertical stripes instead ofthree and the Concord Coach andinscription, all letters in blue, in thefly stripe. The Manager’s Assistantallowed us to photograph the flag. Ifound the details of the coach in-teresting.

Obverse of the City Flag presently in use inCity Hall (defacto).

Alternate City Flag adopted 10 December1979 (dejure, reconstructed).

City Flag adopted 10 December 1979 (dejure,reconstructed).

City Flag Proposal of 1979.

City Flag design of 1951 by a local highschool student (defacto, reconstructed).

City Flag prior to 1979 (dejure, recon-structed).

City Flag prior to 1950 (defacto).

I should also note the re-verse of the flag in use is amirror image except that theinscriptions are not.

We thanked them and wentback to the Clerk’s Officewhere we showed the photo tothe Assistant. She wonderedwhy it was obviously differentand suggested we go to theConcord Public Library, lo-

cated right next door, and ask there.To the Library

At the library, we met Sandi Lee,Reference Librar-ian. After explain-ing our quest, sheimmediately statedthere was a CityFlag downstairs inthe Auditorium.She thought it waspretty old. Wemade a bee linedown to see it. Itwas different thanany of the otherflags we had un-

covered earlier. A fourth flag!This flag is made of a synthetic fab-

ric, probably Nylon, three vertical

stripes of white-blue-white, with theCity Seal appliquéd and embroideredin the center, with a dove holding ared scroll inscribed “NEW HAMP-SHIRE” in gold over the top and thewords “CITY OF” in gold on the hoiststripe and “CONCORD” in gold on thefly stripe. The flag is in pretty poorcondition and I made some recom-mendations for preserving this trea-sure. My examination leads me tobelieve the flag was probably made

around 1950, which seems aboutright given the further informationwe uncovered.

After we returned upstairs, Ilooked over some printed matterabout the city’s history and then Ms.Lee recalled she had had a folderwith a newsclipping in it about theflag. She called looking for it and atthat moment it was in the Clerk’soffice! Back we went!Back to City Hall

Back in the Clerk’s Office, the As-sistant handed me the clipping. Itwas published in the Concord Moni-tor on 22 October 1979. The coverillustration was in full color andshowed yet another flag (that’s five!)that was being proposed to the CityCouncil. It shows two unequal ver-tical stripes of blue-white and hasa white dove and star on the blueand the Concord Coach and two in-scriptions, “CITY OF CONCORD,N.H.” arched over the top in blueand “1853” in white on a blue scrollbelow.

The article, entitled “Coach, DoveAnd Star Highlight Flag Committee’sOffering,” by Randall Keith, Moni-tor Staff Writer, was printed on page

2. It explained the symbols as fol-lows:P a dove holding an olive brach for

peace, which in Latin is “con-cord”.

P a star showing Concord is theState Capital.

P the blue is the color of NewHampshire.

P the Concord Coach representsConcord.

P 1853 is the year the City was in-corporated.

The article also gave some of thebackground of the design. It was theresult of an eight-month search bya Council Committee. The commit-tee, headed by Councillor John F.Upton, reviewed “five or six designssubmitted by residents and decidedthat instead of picking one, theywould use the best features of each.”The committee “tried out differentcombinations and placements” ofthe symbols.

The article also states Wendell andRalph Holt, who were owners of “aflag and home furnishings shop onSouth Street” helped with the designand gathered information on pro-duction costs. At the point it was

written, the next step wasto present the design ata public hearing that wasscheduled for 13 Novem-ber 1979 and then aCouncil vote. As previ-ously stated, the officialflag was adopted lessthan two months later,on 10 December 1979.

The article also statesthere were two existingCity Flags and the de-scription ofneither ofthem match-es the flagsdiscovered sofar! Thatmakes flagsnumber sixand seven!!

Accordingto Keith, theCity Code asit existed inOctober 1979described anofficial flag as having “three equal-sized stripes — white, blue and white— with the city seal in the upper left

hand corner and a white dove in themiddle of the blue stripe.”

Another flag was also described.“The second design was produced in1951 by a local high school student.It has three vertical bars — blue,white and blue — with the city sealin the middle of the white stripe. Thewords ‘City of Concord’ run across thebottom of the flag.”

Further Research NeededWe were only able to devote about

two hours to this research (and lookhow much we found!). More needsto be done. Here are some sugges-tions for anyone who wishes to fol-low up on this:P Search through the Concord

Monitor for 1951 and for Janu-ary-March and November- De-cember 1979 for more news ar-ticles on the flag search.

P Try to contact the participantsof the 1979 project, if they arestill alive (Randall Keith, JohnF. Upton, Wendell Holt, andRalph Holt).

P Look through the City Codesbefore 1979 and immediately af-terwards.

P See if there are any CouncilRecords from 1979 (and 1951)still available.

P Contact the local Historical So-ciety.

This article, with the photostaken in Concord and links to theCity Officials, is online at.

Editor’s note: NEVA encourages youto go on down to your local city hallor town office and see if there’s amunicipal flag (and seal). Send usyour results and photos or other il-lustrations for publication. If there’sno flag, we’d be glad to consult withyour municipality about adoptingone.

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DIRECTIONS TO CASTLE ISLANDFrom the NorthP Take route I-93 into BostonP Drive through downtown Boston

on I-93P Take Exit 15, Columbia Road

exitP Stay to the left on the exit rampP Take a left onto Columbia RoadP Drive .2 mi to the rotaryP Follow directions from the Rotary.From the EastP Swim west!From the RotaryP Take 2nd exit off rotary onto Wil-

liam J. Day Blvd.P Follow William J. Day Blvd. to

the end at Castle IslandThe water (Old Harbor) will be onyour right all the way to Castle I.It is about 2.5 miles from Exit15 to Castle Island

NEXT MEETING AT FORT INDEPENDENCE

Dave Martucci showed some of the stuffhe collected in Scotland and England,especially books and pamphlets. He alsorecounted his hunt in Edinburgh forLord Lyon’s Court and what he foundthere.Doug Bingham showed the 1910-1939Lighthouse Station Flag of the US Light-house Service. It is a white pennantbordered red with a blue lighthouse inthe white.Robert Lloyd Wheelock updated us onthe status of his proposals for a new St.Eustatius flag.NEW BUSINESSThere was a short discussion about theRed Cross and Red Crescent flags andtheir usage in other parts of the world.North Quincy Massachusetts has thelargest Flag Day Parade in the USA andthere are lots of flags.NEXT MEETINGExact date and location to be deter-mined by President Carl Gurtman.ADJOURNMENTMeeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

Respectfully submittedDave Martucci

Secretary/Treasurer

The New England Journal ofVexillology is published ir-regularly by the New EnglandVexillological Association,Dave Martucci, Editor. Annualmembership dues in NEVA is$10 for a single class of mem-bership and this fee includes asubscription to the Journal. Inaddition to the print version,there is an online edition of theJournal found at URL http://w w w . m i d c o a s t . c o m /~martucci/neva/nejv.html .The editor can be contacted bywriting to:

David Martucci240 Calderwood Rd

Washington ME 04574-3440or by phone: (207) 845-2857

or by email to:vex@vexman.net .

The views of individual au-thors are their own and do notreflect the views of NEVA.

The next meeting of NEVA will beheld at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday,June 1st, 2002 at Fort Indepen-dence, Castle Island at the end ofBroadway in South Boston, Massa-chusetts. See directions.

From the WestP Take route I-90 (Mass Pike) to the

endP Stay to the left and take the I-93

exitP Go to the right on the exit rampP Follow signs for I-93 SouthP Follow I-93 south to Exit 15,

Columbia Road exitP Stay to the left on the exit rampP Take a left onto Columbia RoadP Drive .2 mi to the rotaryP Follow directions from the Rotary.From the SouthP Follow route I-93 (Southeast Ex-

pressway) towards BostonP Take Exit 15, Columbia Road

exitP Take a right onto Columbia RoadP Drive .1 mi to the rotaryP Follow directions from the Rotary.

Fort Independence, formerlyCastle William before the Ameri-can Revolution, is the site of thefirst salute rendered to the US Flagby a British Man O’ War after theRevolution. A display of U.S. Stateflags will be flying there.

Call Dave at 845-2857 (or emailvex@vexman.net) if you need aride.

MINUTES of the NEVA Meeting held 11/10/01ATTENDINGPresident Carl Gurtman, Secretary/Treasurer Dave Martucci, Jim Croft,Doug Bingham, Bob Koeller andRobert Lloyd Wheelock.CALL TO ORDERMeeting was called to order at 1:13 p.m.by President Gurtman.MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETINGMOTION by Wheelock, SECONDED byGurtman to accept the minutes of the6/16/01 meeting as written and AC-CEPTED by vote.TREASURER’S REPORTTreasurer reported there we had$134.54 in the checking account as of6/16/01 and that income totalled $0.00and expenses $6.72 leaving a balanceof $127.82 as of 11/10/01 On a MO-TION by Gurtman, SECONDED byBingham, the Treasurer’s report wasACCEPTED by vote.SECRETARY’S REPORTThe Secretary handed out an updatedmembership list. Current membershipstands at 39 members.OLD BUSINESSPresident Gurtman began a discussionof future meetings. The possibility of

meeting in Boston for a tour of the StateHouse flags and the Old State house wasdiscussed. Doug Bingham will look into ameeting place. If it can be arranged, themeeting may be held on Saturday, April20. Exact meeting date, time and placewill be announced by the President.A discussion of NEVA’s status vis-a-viethe article published in The Flag Bulletin#200 by Peter Orenski ensued. Also dis-cussed was vexillology (flag studies) vs.vexillography (flag design). NAVA’s Stateand Provincial Flag Survey and Good Flag,Bad Flag were also discussed.REFRESHMENTSThanks to Carl Gurtman.ROUND TABLECarl Gurtman raised the issue of flag us-age changes in the USA. He has had USNavy Flag Manual A and now has B. Hewants to know how to get the US Armymanual.Bob Koeller showed some of the recentflags he aquired and photos of other in-teresting flags.Jim Croft passed around a book on theArms of the United Kingdom and told usabout other materials he has aquired.

at Carl Gurtman’s house in York, Maine