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Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky (U.S.)

Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government

4:7 image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Current Flag
Variations of the flag
Community pride flag
Seal

See also:

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) from American City Flags by permission of David B. Martucci.

Design

Lexington’s flag consists of its seal centered on a white field, which is enclosed in a narrow, copper-gold inner border. This narrow border is set within a wider light blue border. To complete the flag, an even broader white strip surrounds the light blue border on all four sides. The white strip is broader at the hoist and fly. Details of the seal are set forth in the resolution of adoption:

… (H)enceforth the official Seal of the City of Lexington, Kentucky … shall be a circle, in the center of which appears the front of Morrison Chapel of Transylvania College, bearing 1964 on the left cornerstone and the initials ENF on the right; an upright horseshoe thereover and overlapping burley tobacco leaves end to end on each side thereof [three on each side], together with 1775, the date of Lexington’s incorporation below, all of which shall be surrounded by a circle imprinted City of Lexington Commonwealth of Kentucky, the outer edge of this circle being another smaller circle of smooth design. When depicted in color, said inner circle shall be of light blue background, with the chapel, tobacco leaves and horseshoe in gold with white shadows and 1775 in black; the circle containing the … [legend] … shall be of gold background, the lettering in white framed in black, and the outer circle of the same, light blue.

The legend now reads LEXINGTON FAYETTE URBAN COUNTY GOVERNMENT clockwise and KENTUCKY counterclockwise (at the lowest point in the circle). A narrow fimbriation of light blue forms the outer border of the seal. The seal on which the flag is based was adopted on 29 December 1964, superseding a 1916 version. The lettering on the 1964 seal changed in 1974 when the city and county governments merged.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Symbolism

Morrison Chapel of Transylvania University symbolizes the history of the area. Transylvania University was the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains. The horseshoe above Morrison Hall represents the importance of horses in this area of Kentucky. The horseshoe is positioned with the open end upward, for good luck. The burley tobacco leaves stress the importance of tobacco to the economy of Lexington, the world’s largest burley tobacco market. The blue in the background of the seal is for the bluegrass of Kentucky.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Selection

The seal was adopted in a contest sponsored by the city of Lexington. According to local tradition, the designer used a piece of dry cleaner’s cardboard she took out of one of her husband’s shirts. Her husband happened to be the mayor of Lexington. He unwittingly chose his wife’s design, in a blind contest. The flag itself was designed by a later mayor and his aides and adopted by the Urban County Council. It took only a month from conception to adoption.
Flag adopted: November 1983 (official).
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Designer

Elizabeth Nunn Fugazzi designed the seal. The design of the flag is attributed to Mayor Scotty Baesler and his aides.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

More about the Flag

Elizabeth Fugazzi envisioned her seal as a model for the first city flag, but nearly twenty years passed before a design was adopted.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Fayette and the city of Lexington were merged a few years ago creating a metro government, whose name should be reflected. A flag was adopted - Lexington did not have a flag before the merge.
Phil Nelson, 7 September 2003

Lexington is twinned with Deauville (France), and the flag flies there. Taking a look at https://www.google.fr/maps, the flag on the roundabout of Deauville's twin cities in 2008 / 2010 was already with light blue shades and black letters on ochre circle. So does the one at http://www.kentucky.com/.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 January 2017

Variations of the flag

image by Olivier Touzeau, 2 January 2017

I suppose this to be the county flag, it was a white field with a white rectangle framed dark gold and blue and in the middle a seal which I can recognize on the county's website. Lexington-Fayette is twinned with Deauville, France.
Olivier Touzeau, 7 November 2001

Tom Eblen shows a different version of the seal, consistent with the one I drew on the flag I sent 15 years ago (darker blue, darker ochre, blue letters on white circle, dark blue central disk): tomeblen.bloginky.com from tomeblen.bloginky.com. This variant was spotted in Deauville in June 2001. Ratio of 3:5 (I was not an expert on ratios and drawing at the time but I obviously tried to make a more elongate image because of the lack of data.)
Olivier Touzeau, 2 January 2017

Community pride flag

image by Randy Young, 7 May 2017

Below is a news article detailing the adoption of a new flag for Lexington, Kentucky: www.kentucky.com.
Paul Bassinson, 2 May 2017

Important to note that this is not an official city flag, just a "community pride" flag.
Dave Fowler, 2 May 2017

For this image I used the same style of horse and shade of blue as used in the Lexington tourism logo, as mentioned in the article.
Randy Young, 7 May 2017

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 7 July 2018

Image source: www.energystar.gov
Paul Bassinson, 7 July 2018

image located by Paul Bassinson, 13 August 2019

Source: https://www.kentucky.com/l
Paul Bassinson, 13 August 2019