A school project that became the 50-star flag
LANCASTER, Ohio, June 25 (DC Times Online) — For travelers who visit state capitols, the Bob Heft story adds an unusual layer of meaning to a familiar symbol. Heft, a 17-year-old high school junior from Lancaster, Ohio, said he designed the 50-star U.S. flag as a class project and then watched it travel from a local school assignment to Washington, D.C., and later to state capitols across the country.
In Heft’s StoryCorps oral history, he said his teacher, Stanley Pratt, assigned a history project on the flag. Heft said he made a new design with 50 stars, even though the nation had not yet reached 50 states. He 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.”
How the design got to Washington
Heft said he sent the flag to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959 and asked him to adopt it for the nation’s new flag after Hawaii became the 50th state. Fox News reported that Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Wilton B. Persons, sent Heft a thank-you letter.
In Heft’s account, the flag was first flown on March 7, 1959. The records in the provided sources do not include the full White House letter, so the exact paper trail is not fully shown there.
When the 50-star flag became official
The 50-star flag became the official U.S. flag on July 4, 1960. Ohio Magazine and StoryCorps both describe that moment as the point when Heft’s design moved from a school project and a personal claim into a national symbol.
Heft later said in written correspondence that he had made and flown the first 50-star flag in the United States. Fox News and WFMD reported that Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle wrote back to say he was “pleased to verify your story that yours was the first 50-star flag displayed in Ohio on Ohio property.”
Why the flag traveled so widely
For people interested in U.S. history sites, the travel angle of this story is simple: Heft’s handmade flag did not stay in Ohio. Fox News reported that it was flown over at least 40 state capitol buildings from 1960 to 1962. The report names places including New York, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Utah, Nebraska and Alaska.
One example came from Austin, where the flag flew over the Texas State Capitol for five hours on Oct. 5, 1960. Gov. Price Daniel said it would have stayed up all day except for rain and high wind.
What to make of the different counts
The available accounts do not agree on every number. Some retellings say the flag flew over every state capitol or over more than 100 embassies, while Fox News says at least 40 state capitols. Because those totals vary, they should be treated carefully unless a specific archive or official record is cited.
For a traveler, the most useful takeaway is not the exact count. It is that this flag story is tied to places people still visit: Lancaster, where the project began; Washington, D.C., where it was submitted and later raised; and state capitols that became part of the flag’s history.
That makes the Bob Heft story less like a one-time anecdote and more like a route map through American civic landmarks.
