120 Years of Flag Raising and Friendship!
Marria Blinn, National Chair, The Flag of the United States of America Committee

Happy Flag Day! One of the most exciting events in our National Society’s history was the raising of the first American flag on the grounds of our DAR Headquarters on February 23, 1903! Imagine the feeling of exhilarating victory our earlier Daughters felt as they proudly raised the most recognized symbol in the world for the very first time. 

A few years after our society Society was organized, we made plans to build Memorial Continental Hall. The Sons of the American Revolution of the District of Columbia shared our passion for the American Revolution, patriotism and service, and wanted to acknowledge and encourage our endeavor.  In December 1902, they sent a letter to Cornelia Cole Fairbanks, our sixth President General, expressing their desire to present DAR with a New Year’s gift of an American flag and flagpole to be used at Memorial Continental Hall.  Within a couple of days, Mrs. Fairbanks wrote back graciously accepting the gifts. The gesture of this patriotic gift set the groundwork for a friendship that has lasted 120 years and is still going strong!

The Presentation and Event 

The date was February 23, 1903, and the Daughters convened at the Grand Opera House on Pennsylvania and 15th streets for the twelfth Continental Congress. The Sons of the American Revolution flag and flagpole presentation was scheduled for the afternoon. About one hundred SARs were escorted to the platform. The Minute Men and a commanding colonel came in as color guard and escorted General Edwin Warfield, SAR’s President General to the platform where he made an address. President Dr. Bayne of the SAR D.C. Society made the presentation of a large American flag and a historic flagpole that had been used at both inaugurations for President McKinley. The SAR selected this flagpole as they thought, “…it would be fitting for this momentous occasion”.

Promptly at 4:00 p.m. and after the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner”, the congress adjourned to the Memorial Continental Hall grounds. President General Fairbanks attached the flag to the ropes and hoisted it to the top, herself! The audience cheered and the crowd sang, “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Following the flag raising and right before closing the ceremony, Mrs. Fairbanks announced, “While we were holding our patriotic exercises, the House of Representatives passed the bill exempting from taxation the ground upon which we now stand and on which Continental Memorial Hall is to be erected!”

February 23, 2023, marked the 120th anniversary of our very first flag-raising on Memorial Continental Hall grounds! Today, we raise and fly American flags at Constitution Hall in honor and memory of Daughters, individuals, or groups. The flags are then packaged in an attractive box with a customized certificate and are ready for presentation.  Interested in a unique and exciting gift for a veteran, speaker or special loved one?  To order your Constitution Hall flags from the DAR Store, click here, today!

Let us “Celebrate Stars & Stripes Forever!” by keeping our flags flying!

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