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Maurice E. Connolly
October 4, 1911 - April 3, 1928 |
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| HISTORY OF THE FLAG |
Early
in the year 1913, the Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens recommended to Borough
President Maurice E. Connolly that it would be appropriate if an official Queens Flag were
to be designed and adopted.
Mr. Connolly agreed
and assigned Rodman J. Pearson, a draftsman in the Bureau of Sewers, to prepare
preliminary sketches, which were later submitted to the Chamber's board of directors for
approval.
A special committee
consisting of Commissioner of Highways G. Howland Leavitt, Louis Windemuller and Charles
G. Meyer was appointed to confer with E. Hageman Hall, president of the New York
Historical Society and secretary of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation
Society, for the purpose of authenticating the various elements of the design.
At Mr. Hall's
suggestion, several important changes were |
incorporated
and finally on June 3, 1913, the revised sketch was adopted by the Queens Chamber.
The Chamber defrayed
the expense of making the initial flags, later displayed at regular functions of the
Queens Chamber and at its headquarters in Long Island City, at the Queens Borough Public
Library in Jamaica, and at Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.
The new Queens Flag
was first displayed officially at the celebration inaugurating construction of the dual
rapid transit system in Queens on June 7, 1913.
For some reason, it
was not flown at Borough Hall until October 14, 1929, when Borough President George U.
Harvey raised it upon the Borough Hall standard in the presence of Queens Chamber
officials and borough civic leaders. |
Connolly, Maurice E. of Corona, Queens, Queens County, N.Y.
Democrat. Delegate to Democratic National Convention from New York, 1912, 1916, 1924. Burial location unknown.
Queensborough Subway Opening. The Queensborough Subway, formerly known as the
Steinway Tunnel, was opened for traffic at noon on Tuesday, June 22nd. A short program of
exercises preceded the opening. Officers of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and
public officials left the Manhattan terminal of the tunnel at 10:45 o'clock and proceeded
by special train through the tunnel to the Jackson Avenue station on the Queens side. The
trip was made in three and a half minutes. Here they met a large number of invited guests
from Queens and other boroughs of the City, and all assembled upon the station platform.
Mr. James Blaine Walker, Acting Secretary of the Commission in the absence of Mr. Travis
H. Whitney, Secretary, who was attending a class reunion at Harvard, took a position on
the stairway leading from the station platform to the street surface and introduced the
following speakers: Mr. Edward E. McCall, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Mr.
Maurice E. Connolly, President of Queens Borough, Mr. Theodore P. Shonts, President of the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company, Mr. George J. Ryan and Mr. John Adikes,
Vice-Presidents of the Chamber of Commerce of Queens Borough, and Mr. August Belmont, of
the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. Mr. Walker announced that he had received a letter
of regret from Mayor Mitchel, who had to go to Albany on that day to appear before the
Constitutional Convention. Flashlight photographs were taken of the group as they stood on
the stairway, and one of them is reproduced in this issue of the Record.
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