The City Seal

City Seal

Early in 1924, soon after the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce superseded the old Plymouth Improvement Association, Harry S. Lee, the Chamber's first Secretary, was working out the design for a Seal for the organization. Sidney D. Strong, Village Manager, and member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, was also looking for a new design for the Seal of the Village. One night at a Chamber of Commerce meeting these two men combined their ideas and the new Seal was born.

The suggestion for its use as a community Seal and for the scroll with words, "A Village of Homes" came from the Village Manager. The idea of the log cabin and the two spruce trees was to typify the pioneer homes of the period of the founding of the village in 1825, which appears on the Seal. The motto, "A Village of Homes" was the picture the Plymouth citizens had of their present day community and indicated the type of development they hoped would continue. This Seal was formally adopted by the Chamber of Commerce and by the Commission of the Village of Plymouth in 1924. It has been in use by both banks and by the local school district.

City Seal

At first both the Village and the Chamber of Commerce used the Seal with a blue and white square background. Later the background was left off and the round medallion was used. The first general use of the Seal at a public occasion was at the time of the celebration of the opening of the Plymouth road pavement on September 11th, 1924. The decoration on the street lamp posts included the Seal in blue and white in the center of a shield divided into blue and white halves. Mr. Roy Woodworth at the Bazaar, also put in his stock felt banners using the Seal and bunting flags of blue and white with the Seal in the center. These were used freely by the citizens among the decorations for this civic holiday.

When Plymouth became a city in 1932, the Seal was readopted with appropriate changes. For a couple of years after its first adoption, the Plymouth Village Hall wore the Seal in front of the big middle front window. A large window box, painted blue, was set in front of the window. On its center was a small model log cabin built of "Lincoln logs" from the toy store like the cabin on the Seal design. On each side of the cabin there was a live spruce tree about eight inches tall. Below the cabin, on the face of the window box, was a wooden scroll painted white with the motto in blue letters.

City Seal

The Village also used the Seal, in flag form, as a reward for service on February 20, 1925, when the Commission gave boy scout troop P-1 a municipal flag in appreciation for civic service rendered. When City Hall was rebuilt during L. P. Cookingham's term as City Manager, the Seal in colors was painted on the wall of the corridor on the first floor. The artist was Edward McCandlish who also painted the murals on the walls of the commission room and the reproduction of the 1868 photograph of Main Street on the first floor corridor wall.

Read the original report here.

For More Information

 

Plymouth Historical Museum 
Website

155 S. Main 
Plymouth, MI 48170 

Phone: 734-455-8940 

Public Hours
Wednesday, Friday - Sunday
1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.