^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Lawrence, Massachusetts (U.S.)

Essex County

image located by Valentin Poposki, 24 December 2019

Description of the flag
Former flag
Seal

See also:

Description of the flag

A very interesting postcard (?) shows a former flag of the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA: makelawrencebetter.com/makelawrencebetter.htm.

It says that the flag was adopted in 1903, and the white stripes represent the Spicket, Merrimack and Shawsheen Rivers and their respective courses.
Valentin Poposki, 25 September 2008

The flag of Lawrence was designed by Daniel W. Hoff and first flown on June 1, 1903 on the 50th anniversary of the city's founding. Hoff was the supervisor of penmanship in the city, who made the first flag out of worsted wool which was produced in the city's mills.
Daniel Rentería, 20 August 2023

Here's that postcard from the Lawrence Historical Society: https://www.lawrencehistory.org/files/uploads/flag.jpg
Masao Okazaki, 20 August 2023

I received a letter from Jonas Stundzia, the Chairman of the Lawrence Historical Commission, to answer questions about Lawrence's flag I had after reading this 2013 article posted in August by Daniel Renteria: https://www.eagletribune.com/news/local_news/

The Flag of Lawrence

The official flag was designed by Daniel W. Hoff and adopted in 1903, the 50th year after Lawrence was incorporated. The original flag is 3’ x 6’ and is held by the Lawrence History Center. The flag was not preceded by another and has never been revised, although flag manufacturers had darkened its color and changed the size and position of the trident. When Mr. Stundzia became chairman of the Lawrence Historical Commission in 2013, he produced a historically accurate version of the flag.

An "altered flag, mentioned in the 2013 article, to which “drawings of mills, smokestacks billowing smoke inside a gear” had been added is not a flag but is a logo designed for the back page of a program booklet for a 1903 celebratory event.

Booklet logo:

image located by Masao Okazaki, 12 September 2023

The postcard linked to at the Lawrence History Center and mentioned above is a 2003 enhancement of the original 1903 postcard: https://www.lawrencehistory.org/files/uploads/flag.jpg

Postcard:

image located by Masao Okazaki, 12 September 2023

Description of the seal by Mr. Stundzia

The man is a mechanic, and the woman is a weaver. Also included are a bee representing labor and hard work, a bundle of drawing yarn, the falls, and the old Andover Bridge.

image located by Masao Okazaki, 12 September 2023

Current seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 21 August 2019

Source: https://www.uml.edu/Images/Lawrence_MA_seal
Paul Bassinson, 21 August 2019

State House Flag

image from www.state.ma.us/bsb/images/Lawrence.jpg

A white flag with a town seal, bearing a coat of arms inside a ring. The details are indecipherable. Lawrence is in Essex County.
Dov Gutterman, 5 November 2002

It seems the flag changed after some time, and is described to use drawings of mills and smokestacks billowing inside a gear in the middle of the flag. This seems to be a different flag to the one used in the Massachusetts State Hall, since there isn't a gear on that flag. I'm not sure what the history is behind the one in the State Hall (which might not even be there currently). Perhaps this flag is used as a sort of decoration in the State Hall without real official status, or is also a former flag?

From my understanding, after the flag with the gear in the center, it seems the one adopted in 1903 was re-adopted. Flag manufacturers adjusted the flag to their liking, and thus a variant was created with the trident in a different spot and in dark blue. This variant was re-adjusted to be much closer to the original flag, and seems to have occurred in 2013.
Daniel Rentería, 20 August 2023

A letter from Mr. Stundzia, Historical Society, states that the first flag to represent Lawrence in the State House’s “Hall of Town/City Flags” was basically a bedsheet with the 1853 city seal which was sent in a hurry; no one on the city council when the hall was adopted (1983-1991) knew anything about the city’s history. It was never the city flag.

This State House SOB is shown in this article from the Boston Globe: https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/02/flag-for-every-town/GByvZkH0T0BPeDNmDBMe0I/igraphic.html?arc404=true

The flag: https://www3.bostonglobe.com/rw//Boston/2011-2020/WebGraphics/Metro/BostonGlobe.com/2012/12/flags/img/Lawrence.jpg

Masao Okazaki, 12 September 2023