Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum

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Star-Spangled Banner Flag House
Flag House, 844 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland.JPG
Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in 2011
Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum
Location844 East Pratt Street at Albemarle Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Coordinates 39°17′14.7″N76°36′11.7″W / 39.287417°N 76.603250°W / 39.287417; -76.603250
Built1793
Architectural style Federal style
NRHP reference No. 69000320
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 3, 1969 [1]
Designated NHLDecember 16, 1969 [2]
Designated BCL1975

The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, formerly the Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum, is a museum located in the Jonestown/Old Town and adjacent to Little Italy neighborhoods of eastern downtown Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Contents

Built in 1793, it was the home of Mary Young Pickersgill when she moved to Baltimore in 1806 and the location where she later sewed the "Star Spangled Banner," in 1813, the huge out-sized garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry at Whetstone Point in Baltimore Harbor in the summer of 1814 during the British Royal Navy attack in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The museum contains furniture and antiques from the Federal period as well as items from the Pickersgill family. [3]

A supplemental 12,600-square-foot (1,170 m2) museum was constructed to the rear next to Pickersgill's home. [4] This museum houses exhibits on the War of 1812 and the Battle of Baltimore. It has an orientation theater, gift shop, exhibit galleries, and meeting rooms. The museum features a 30 by 42-foot (13 m) tall window which was created to be the same color, size, and design of the original "Star-Spangled Banner" flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes made by Pickersgill in the adjacent Flag House and completed on the floor of a nearby brewery by members of her family and servants/slaves. [4] Set into the ground outside the museum is a map of the United States, with each state formed from a piece of stone quarried within its borders.

Post Pickersgill

In 1927 the house was sold [5] to the City of Baltimore and the newly established Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Association which grew out of a number of members who had participated in the earlier Centennial Celebration in 1914. In the twenty years prior to that, the home had been used for a variety of services including: a post office, bank and shipping facility. [6] Prior to 1908 the house was occupied by Placido Milio and his family. [6] In 1928 it was dubbed a historic shrine. [7]

Restoration

The Flag House in 1936 Flag House, 844 East Pratt & Albemarle Streets (Baltimore, Independent City, Maryland).jpg
The Flag House in 1936

Additional restoration and expansion efforts were initiated in 1952 by Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr., twenty-five years after the initial establishment in 1927-1928 of a historical museum in the Flag House. The expansion included a smaller brick building to the rear/north for a museum with exhibits area and office space. Mayor D'Alesandro was especially interested and concerned since he had lived all his life just a few blocks away to the southeast in the neighborhood of "Little Italy". [8] The hope was to complete the home to a full restoration including replica furnishings from the time period. Although some of the money used to fuel this project came from emergency funds for the year, donations were also accepted. [8] Most notably, the Daughters of the American Revolution provided a significant donation. [9] The Flag House Association worked to organize this program. [10] An early proposal for saving the deteriorating building included a 1946 plan to physically move the Flag House to a resting place in Fort McHenry, however those efforts failed. [11] Despite the redevelopment of this historic landmark, modernization of the area surrounding the home caused controversy. [12] Many claimed that the proposed east–west route of the cross-city Interstate 95 with an interchange connection to the southern end of the Jones Falls Expressway (Interstate 83), running through the historical neighborhoods of Federal Hill and Fells Point on either side of the harbor waterfront, would ruin the natural antique environment of the historic site home. [12]

The house was already designated a National Historic Landmark under the Historic Sites Act of 1935 program of the U. S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service in 1969. [2] [13]

Activism

At various times in its history, the Flag House has served as the backdrop for patriotic activism.

At a Flag House ceremony in June 1955 celebrating the opening of National Flag Week, retired Brigadier General Bonner Fellers in a speech advocated for "an overwhelming air force, without conscription" and an end to diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union. He also warned against ceding American sovereignty through a status of forces treaty and strongly urged in favor of the adaptation of the Bricker Amendment. [14]

In June 1961, during a dedication ceremony for the stone map, Representative Gordon L. McDonough (R., CA) stood before a crowd of 375 people and advocated for a return "to good old-fashioned American patriotism" and for adopting Flag Day as a national holiday. [15]

In May 1980, the Flag House held a press conference where they launched a nationwide drive to encourage all Americans to "Pause for the Pledge" on Flag Day, which in June 1985, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in Public Law 99–54, [16] recognizing the pause for the Pledge of Allegiance as part of National Flag Day activities. [17]

Related Research Articles

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"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort after the battle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort McHenry</span> United States fort in Baltimore, Maryland

Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy from Chesapeake Bay on September 13–14, 1814.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag Day (United States)</span> Holiday commemorating the adoption of the national flag (June 14, 1777)

Flag Day is a holiday celebrated on June 14 in the United States. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. The Flag Resolution stated "That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inner Harbor</span> Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Young Pickersgill</span> Maker of the Star Spangled Banner Flag

Mary Pickersgill was the maker of the Star-Spangled Banner hoisted over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. The daughter of another noted flag maker, Rebecca Young, Pickersgill learned her craft from her mother, and in 1813 she was commissioned by Major George Armistead to make a flag for Baltimore's Fort McHenry that was so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a great distance. The flag was installed in August 1813 and, during the Battle of Baltimore a year later, Francis Scott Key could see the flag while negotiating a prisoner exchange aboard a British vessel and was inspired to pen the words that became the United States National Anthem in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Armistead</span> American military officer (1780-1818)

George Armistead was an American military officer, best known as the commander of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Italy, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Little Italy is a neighborhood located in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. The neighborhood is known for its strong Italian-American heritage and identity. The neighborhood is still mostly populated by the descendants of Italian-American immigrants and remains a closely knit ethnic enclave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star-Spangled Banner (flag)</span> Flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812

The Star-Spangled Banner, or the Great Garrison Flag, was the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the naval portion of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. It is on exhibit at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Seeing the flag flying over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814, after the battle ended, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry". These words were written by Key and set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven", a popular song at the time, by John Stafford Smith. In 1931 the song became the national anthem of the United States.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pratt Street</span> Street in Baltimore

Pratt Street is a major street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It forms a one-way pair of streets with Lombard Street that run west–east through downtown Baltimore. For most of their route, Pratt Street is one-way in an eastbound direction, and Lombard Street is one way westbound. Both streets begin in west Baltimore at Frederick Avenue and end in Butcher's Hill at Patterson Park Avenue. Since 2005, these streets have been open to two-way traffic from Broadway until their end at Patterson Park. Although Lombard is also a two-way street from Fulton Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Pratt is still one-way eastbound in this area.

Thomas Dixon was a Presbyterian architect born in Wilmington, Delaware and one of the founders of the Baltimore chapter of AIA. He was the father of minister Thomas Freeman Dixon, an 1893 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. He partnered with his brother, James M. Dixon, from 1851 until James's death in 1863. In 1871, he partnered with another well-known Baltimore architect Charles L. Carson for some time doing business from their offices at 117 Baltimore Street as Thomas Dixon and Charles L. Carson until sometime before 1877 when the partnership was dissolved. In 1827, he was elected Honorary Academician at the National Academy of Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail</span> Trail that commemorates the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812

The Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail is a National Historic Trail that commemorates the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812. The 560-mile (900 km) trail was named after "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States. Consisting of water and overland routes, the trail extends from Tangier Island, Virginia, through southern Maryland, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay, and Baltimore, Maryland. The trail also contains sites on Maryland's Eastern shore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loudon Park Cemetery</span> Historic privately owned cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland

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Brown's Brewery was a brewery located on East Lombard Street in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1813, Mary Pickersgill sewed the famous Star Spangled Banner Flag in one of its malthouses. At the time, the brewery was owned by Baltimore merchant George I. Brown who had bought it from Edward Johnson, the third Mayor of Baltimore. George Brown sold the brewery to Eli Claggett in 1818, and until its final closure in 1879, it was known as Claggett's Brewery. The site once occupied by the brewery was excavated in 1983 as the Baltimore Center for Urban Archeology's first project.

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References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Star-Spangled Banner Flag House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
  3. McKee, Brad (July 4, 2002). "CURRENTS: ARCHITECTURE; So Gallantly Streaming In Baked-On Ceramic". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 Carol Sorgen. "Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Beyond". gallagherstravels.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2006. Retrieved March 3, 2007.
  5. "The World of Music". The Etude: 561. August 1927 via Theodore Presser Co.
  6. 1 2 "Work On Flag House Restoration Under Way: Historical Shrine To Mark Birthplace Of Emblem Which Inspired National Anthem". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. December 5, 1927. p. 22. ProQuest   537876286.
  7. "Flag house park cost data sought". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. March 14, 1946. p. 26. ProQuest   539099493.
  8. 1 2 "Flag House Will Be Restored, Plus Building For Museum". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. September 9, 1952. p. 34. ProQuest   541713940.
  9. "Will solicit funds for old flag house". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. March 3, 1927. p. 11. ProQuest   543767765.
  10. "City to torn over flag house Tuesday". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. June 12, 1927. p. 17. ProQuest   543744325.
  11. "On Playing Cat And Mouse With Our National Shrines". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. March 19, 1946. p. 12. ProQuest   542883314.
  12. 1 2 Somerville, Frank P L (August 17, 1963). "Mayor gets route plea". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. p. 17. ProQuest   540056331.
  13. Joseph Scott Mendinghall (February 12, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Star-Spangled Banner Flag House". National Historic Landmark. National Park Service.. Accompanying 2 photos, exterior, from 1968 and 1974.  (715 KB)
  14. "End of U.S. ties with reds urged". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. June 13, 1955. p. 30. ProQuest   541440648.
  15. "Flag house fete held". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. June 19, 1961. p. 10. ProQuest   540370825.
  16. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-99/pdf/STATUTE-99-Pg97.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  17. Ettlin, David Michael (May 17, 1980). "Flag House pushes for nationwide 'Pause for the Pledge" on Flag Day". The Sun. Baltimore, Md. p. B18. ProQuest   537775547.