Issue 30

JOURNAL OF GREAT WATERS ASSOCIATION OF VEXILLOLOGY

December 2010 Vol. XV, No. 2, Issue 30


Berea, KY	Berea, OH

Berea, Kentucky

The flag of Berea, Kentucky, is white with the city’s seal in the center. The seal is encircled by a blue ring fimbriated in golden yellow. Running from the 9 o’clock position to the 3 o’clock position is CITY OF BEREA, KENTUCKY in golden yellow capital letters. Centered on the ring at the bottom are the numerals 1890, also in golden yellow, the date of the city’s founding.

Within the ring on a white field is a view of City Hall, as if the onlooker were in front and viewing from the far right. The building’s front is in the classic Greek style with four columns beneath a triangular-shaped apex. The building is outlined lightly in brown and has a number of shadow highlights, also in brown. In front of the building, to the right, is a flagpole with a flag flying toward the hoist, all in brown shadow.

No information is available about who designed the flag or when it was adopted. The seal was developed in 1890, and later a commercial flag company put the seal on a white field to make the city flag.

Berea, Ohio

Berea, Ohio, a southwestern suburb of Cleveland, is known as the “Grindstone City,” recalling the early quarries of sandstone from which grindstones were manufactured to sharpen tools in home, farm, and industry. The grindstone is a central device in blue outline on the city’s flag, which has three horizontal stripes of blue, white, blue on a burgee-shaped flag. The grindstone is surrounded by a narrow blue ring, and that in turn is surrounded by a wider white ring fimbriated in blue, also forming the city’s seal. Curved around the white ring, from about 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock, are the words BEREA . OHIO . THE GRINDSTONE CITY. Centered across the bottom on a white heraldic ribbon is the inscription, FOUNDED 1836, in blue.

The flag was developed as a result of the city’s Sesquicentennial. A contest was held among the city’s school children. David Victor of Riveredge (Elementary) School designed the seal, which Elizabeth Wetter, of Adalbert (Elementary) School, put on her design of the flag. Judges included Henrietta Echard and former art teachers Jo Pusti and Ted Theodore. The flag was adopted on July 7, 1986.

Berea also flies a city banner on its streets for holiday celebrations. The banner is a rectangular flag with the city seal in blue and white on a white field, a much less expensive format for wide display than the formal city flag which is mostly kept in City Hall.