Wyoming is the kind of community where neighbors share the proverbial cup of sugar, trade plants from gardens, and pass along play structures and bikes that children have outgrown. But did you know there is a unique story about Wyoming neighbors passing along a 40-foot flagpole?
A wooden flagpole has traveled from Elm Avenue to Burns Avenue to Friendship United Methodist Church, until finally resting in Crescent Park, with the help of the City of Wyoming’s Public Works Department and Boy Scout Troop 482.
The origin of the flagpole is unknown. Possibly a ship’s mast over 100 years old, the pole’s first Wyoming home was on the Brownell property at 134 Elm Avenue. When the Brownell property was purchased by the Wyoming Board of Education in 1951 to build the Elm School, the house was demolished but the flagpole remained on the property. Around 2000, Cathy and Dick Brewer, whose residence backs up to the Elm School, heard the flagpole was to be removed and replaced with a metal pole. With some hardy helpers and wheelbarrows, the traveling flagpole was carried down Elm Avenue and up Burns Avenue to the Brewers’ front yard.
After nearly two decades on Burns Avenue, in 2017 the pole was toppled in a heavy rainstorm. Cathy Brewer contacted Sherry Sheffield at the Wyoming Historical Society with a most unusual offer: the 40-foot flagpole. Sheffield knew it was important to preserve the historic flagpole, so she reached out to Jon Beeson and Boy Scout Troop 482 at Friendship United Methodist Church to help restore it.
Sheffield also contacted City Manager Lynn Tetley, asking if the City would be interested in an historic flagpole. She recalls how Tetley was enthusiastic and identified Crescent Park as the best place for the flagpole.
A Journey Worthy of a Small-Town Legend
To move the flagpole the 1.1-mile distance from the Brewer home to Friendship Church, Beeson fashioned a set of wheels and straps, and with a group of Boy Scouts, walked the flagpole down Burns to Worthington, and then to Springfield Pike. A Wyoming Police cruiser stopped traffic on the Pike so the scouts could walk the pole across the street and head up the Pike to Friendship Church. The scouts worked on the flagpole for two years. Several feet of rotted wood were removed, protective marine paint was applied, and a casing was fashioned for the pole to sit in. Beeson investigated solar lighting and worked with the City to install the pole at Crescent Park.
The traveling flagpole, now 30 feet in length, had one final journey to make. In October 2019, the scouts carried the refurbished pole down the Pike, down Pendery Avenue, then to Crescent Park. The next day, a crew from the Wyoming Public Works Department dug a hole and placed the pole. On November 20th the flagpole was dedicated with Boy Scout Troop 482 performing the flag ceremony.
The historic flagpole has found a permanent home for all to enjoy in Crescent Park.
