THE NUTLEY FLAG
ANN A. TROY
IN DECEMBER 1956, Mayor Harry W. Chenoweth requested the Nutley Historical Society to submit to the Town Commissioners an appropriate design to be used on a flag for the Town of Nutley.
Dr. Robert F. Heald, President of the Society, appointed a committee to work on the flag design project. Serving on this committee were Miss Marie Spinning, Mrs. William Pratt, Mrs. Vivian Fikus, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Sergeant, Herbert Gloss of the High School Art Department and Miss Ann Troy who served as Chairman.
At the annual dinner meeting of the Society held March 19, designs were exhibited. By popular vote two designs submitted by Mrs. Vivian Fikus and two by High School students Barbara Viventi and Robert Cook were chosen for the Committee’s consideration.
A $25 government bond was offered by Annin Co., nationally known flag manufacturers, for the designer of the flag chosen.
On March 31, a design submitted by Mrs. Vivian Fikus was selected unanimously by the Committee. Suggestions offered by the Committee members to facilitate production were accepted by Mrs. Fikus in her final design.
This completed project was presented to the Mayor and Commissioners on July 16 in the form of a 3 x 5 foot flag sketch and a smaller sketch in color. Dr. Heald remarked: “We, in the Historical Society, believe this design ties together the past, present and future of the Town of Nutley in a remarkably able manner and will give us a flag of which the Town can be proud. We recommend if for your consideration.”
Mayor Chenoweth received the design and commented: “It is not often that a governing body is able to participate in a project of such an enduring nature.” At a meeting, August 6, 1957, the Commissioners officially approved the design for a Town flag.
The design’s base is a field of gray upon which are superimposed three large acorns in red. Three wavy red lines beneath the acorns tie the design together and symbolize the location of Nutley on the Third River. The acorns are symbolic of the Town’s name and its three centuries of history. In the center acorn, in white numerals, is the date, 1902, in which year the name of the Town was changed legally from Franklin to Nutley.
The Town’s ancient Indian, Dutch and English heritage is suggested on the first acorn. The middle acorn portrays one of the luxuriant nut trees for which Nutley was famous. A palette and quill pen with book refer to authors and writers who have lived here during the past century.
The third acorn stresses the industrial life of the Town. A sketch of the La Monte Paper Company plant with the numerals 1871 points out the date of the Town’s oldest active major industry. The electronic emblem indicates the Federal Telecommunication Laboratories while the caduceus refers to the Hoffmann-La Roche Company.
Plans by the Mayor and the Town Commissioners are now under way to have the flag manufactured commercially for use in the Commission Chambers. Efforts may be made in the near future for the purchase of copies of the flag for use by schools, churches and town civic organizations.
