LANCASTER, Ohio, June 25 (DC Times Online) — If you are touring U.S. state capitols, Bob Heft’s flag story adds a new layer to the buildings you may already plan to visit. A high school project in Lancaster, Ohio, helped shape the 50-star U.S. flag, and the handmade flag later turned up at statehouses and in Washington, D.C.
A classroom assignment in Ohio
In his StoryCorps oral history, Bob Heft said the project started when his history teacher, Stanley Pratt, gave the class an assignment to design a flag. Heft said he was 17, that he used his family’s sewing machine, and that he made a 50-star design before it became the official U.S. flag.
Heft also said Pratt gave him a B- and told him, “If you don’t like the grade, get it accepted in Washington then come back and see me.”
That line became part of the story because Heft said he took the challenge seriously.
How the design reached Washington
Heft said he sent his flag to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959 and asked him to adopt it for the nation’s new flag when Hawaii became the 50th state. In Heft’s account, Eisenhower later called him to Washington, D.C., for a ceremony. Heft said his teacher later changed the grade to an A.
Heft also said in later correspondence that he had made and flown the first 50-star flag in the United States and that it was first flown on March 7, 1959.
The White House correspondence mentioned in later coverage shows that Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Wilton B. Persons, sent Heft a thank-you letter.
Why state capitols matter in the story
For travelers, the most practical part of the story is that the flag did not stay in a drawer. It was shown in public places tied to government and history.
Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle wrote that he was “pleased to verify your story that yours was the first 50-star flag displayed in Ohio on Ohio property.” In Texas, Gov. Price Daniel said the flag was flown over the Texas State Capitol in Austin for five hours on Oct. 5, 1960, and that it would have stayed up all day except for “a rain and high wind” that started around noon.
Later accounts say the flag was displayed at many state capitols across the country, but the exact total varies from source to source. The clearest documented takeaway is that Heft’s flag became a traveling symbol of the new 50-state nation.
What visitors can take from the history
If you are planning a trip that includes the White House, Washington landmarks, or state capitols, Heft’s story helps explain why flags at those places can carry so much meaning.
The story also shows how a simple school assignment can become part of national history. A teenage student in Lancaster, Ohio, made a flag for class. A president later accepted the design. And state capitols from Ohio to Texas helped turn it into a symbol seen around the country.
For travelers, that makes the flag more than a symbol on a pole. It is a piece of civic history linked to places people still visit today.
