House of Flags Museum

[military drum music] - We think of a flag representing a sovereign nation, a sovereign state, a governmental unit or a military, so on, but it's the people that are behind that flag, that support that flag, that sponsor that flag, that make it all worthwhile, 'cause without the people, a flag is nothing.

- [Clay] Robert Williamson may be the curator of the House of Flags Museum in Columbus, but he's also a steward of stories, the stories behind these flags.

- We know of no other House of Flags Museum that's like this, that focuses only on U.S. history, that centers around all 27 official U.S. flags.

It's the history timeline told by flags.

We teach history of the United States, we teach flag respect, we teach how to use the flag properly, and what the flag means.

So, it's an educational museum.

- [Clay] George Scofield founded the museum in 2001.

It was in a small building with no heat, air conditioning, or restrooms, 13 miles outside of town.

The museum moved into this downtown building donated by the county in 2011.

- [Robert] Well, there's about 300 flags on display here.

- [Clay] They include this hornets' nest flag, which was the first unofficial flag of North Carolina.

It symbolizes General Charles Cornwallis' defeat at Charlotte in 1780.

- Cornwallis wrote back to England and said, "I tried to retain Mecklenburg County and Charlottetown, but it's a hornets' nest of rebellion."

Hence, Charlotte is known as the hornets' nest city.

The Charlotte Hornets a basketball team.

This is a presidential flag exhibit.

It's the only exhibit like this that we know of in the United States.

- [Clay] The exhibit shows the evolution of the presidential flag from George Washington to Dwight Eisenhower when our nation reached 50 states and there's an exhibit of flags remembering the United States' worst tragedy.

- All nearly 3,000 people that lost their lives in the terrorist attacks in New York, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania are named on this flag.

It's called the Flag of Honor.

We've had some people come through and say, "I've got a half hour to look at the flags."

Well, when they start hearing the first story of the flags, they're here for another two hours, because every flag has a story.

- [Clay] That's what happened to Tom Weaver and his wife when they moved to Columbus from Illinois.

- We went inside and we wanted to stay like for 10 minutes and we stayed like for two hours.

- [Clay] The flags are all painstakingly accurate reproductions, some custom made, some donated, some purchased.

Williamson says originals can be nearly impossible to find and are too expensive to preserve and protect, especially for an all-volunteer nonprofit organization.

- If we had authentic flags, we'd have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of artifacts here and quite frankly, we don't have the deep pockets to secure that and preserve that.

- [Clay] Still, the authentic reproductions draw groups from schools, churches, civic organizations, as well as history buffs.

- [Robert] People from all over the world have been here.

- [Clay] To see what are far more than just flags.

- The flag represents our nation.

It's not a piece of cloth and when it represents our nation, it represents the history of our nation.

Everything that our nation went through to get to this point is represented, can be told by that flag.

[military drum music] - The House of Flags Museum is at 33 Gibson Street in Columbus and they're open Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, give them a call at 828-894-5640 or go online to houseofflags.org.