![[Flag of Westhampton, Massachusetts]](../images/u/us-mawth.jpg)
image by Masao Okazaki, 28 July 2019
Last modified: 2020-06-13 by rick wyatt
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image by Masao Okazaki, 28 July 2019
See also:
This flag was adopted in May 2017 (https://www.westhampton-ma.com/home/news/town-flag-presented-state-house)
and presented at the State House in December 2017 (https://www.westhampton-ma.com/sites/westhamptonma)
This article is about the flag's designer:
https://www.gazettenet.com/westhampton-has-a-flag-10517071
Masao Okazaki, 28 July 2019
From
https://www.gazettenet.com/getattachment/00283aab-8d36-428a-8860-9b277d0e4787/westhamptonflag-hg-060917-ph1
and article
https://www.gazettenet.com/westhampton-has-a-flag-10517071):
Westhampton woman creates town’s first flag.
The large, black walnut tree
that stands tall in the heart of Westhampton, towering over the Blacksmith Shop
Museum, provides an iconic image: the tree’s branches, broadly reaching against
a blue sky. That same image will now officially represent the town as part of
the new Westhampton flag, which will be hung in the Statehouse’s “Hall of Flags”
along with more than 300 others that represent the state’s cities and towns.
When Westhampton became aware that it was one of the few municipalities in
Massachusetts that did not have a flag hanging in the hall, residents started
brainstorming. Mary Montague said she loved the way some of the tree’s limbs
reach for the ground while others stretch toward the sky. An artist, Montague
took a photo of the tree during the winter to use as a model for a painting.
Montague thought the image would also be an appropriate one for the town’s flag.
“The tree is so unique,” she said.
The tree also has history with the
town. The walnut tree was planted during the early 1800s, the story goes, by
Sylvester Judd Jr., a historian, statesman and editor of the Daily Hampshire
Gazette. Kurt Heidinger, a resident who has researched Judd and the town’s
history, said he had visited a state south of Massachusetts, brought back
walnuts or seeds and then planted them. Heidinger said the area where the tree
now thrives is a warm pocket in Westhampton. “I’ve been told it’s the largest
walnut tree in Massachusetts,” Heidinger said. “People stop their cars and take
a picture.”
Montague and resident Bob Miller collaborated on the flag’s
design. Using a computer, Miller superimposed the town seal on the center of
Montague’s image of the tree. Cheryl Provost, town administrative assistant,
took it from there. To meet production requirements, she had to take another
photo and work with Flags USA, which formatted the design, and Gettysburg Flag
Works, which produced it.
Provost said she is working with the
Statehouse and thinks the flag will be presented this summer. Statehouse special
events coordinator Ayanna Clark said there is usually a small, informal program
with flag makers, a state representative and state senator when a new flag is
hung. The Board of State Office Buildings has been collecting the flags from the
state’s 351 communities since 1992. Starting in 2011, then-senator Benjamin B.
Downing began encouraging officials of the 18 municipalities in his district of
Berkshire, Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties to create their own flags, a
press release states. He even sponsored design contests in some of the
communities. In the past six years, more than 10 communities in Downing’s
district have created a flag. While the collection is still not complete, Clark
said “we’re getting closer.”
Two of the Westhampton flags have been
produced — one for the town hall and one for the Statehouse. Montague said the
Blacksmith Shop Museum may create smaller versions of the flag to sell, but
plans are not set in stone.
Masao Okazaki, 28 July 2019
![[Municipal seal]](../images/u/us-mawth).gif)
image located by Paul Bassinson, 3 May 2020
Source:
https://www.westhampton-ma.com/sites/westhamptonma/themes/vts/logo.png
Paul Bassinson, 3 May 2020
