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Southampton, New York (U.S.)

Suffolk County

image by Pascal Gross, 5 February 2001

Description of the flag
Hamlet of Hampton Bays

See also:

Description of the flag

From the Town of Southampton website:

"On December 18th, 1929, it was resolved by the Town Board of Southampton 'That the recommendation of the Southampton Chapter of the Daughters of The American Revolution for the adoption of an official flag for the Town of Southampton be approved, and that this Board adopts as the official flag for the Town of Southampton the design submitted, consisting of three vertical bars, two of Colonial Blue and only one of Colonial Buff, arranged alternately with the Seal of the Town of Southampton on the Colonial Buff or center bar, and that the Town purchase a flag design, for display in the Town Hall.' The emblem on the Southampton Town Flag is the Seal of the Town of Southampton."

Ned Smith, 4 February 2001

Both the blue and the buff in the flag are actually lighter than shown on the page. Also, the seal is not full color, but merely lines of the same shade of blue, upon the "buff" background. The image above was reconstructed from only a verbal description, which used the terms "colonial blue" and "colonial buff" without further definition, so it is certainly understandable why it may not be the precise shades of the actual flag. See www.town.southampton.ny.us/photoGalleryDetail.ihtml?id=105 and www.town.southampton.ny.us/photoGalleryDetail.ihtml?id=103 for photos of the flag. From personal observation at Southampton Town Hall I can confirm that the shade of blue that appears in the photo is similar to that of the actual flag; the so-called buff (actually looks more beige than buff) might be a little bit more tan than appears in the photo.
Ned Smith, 18 August 2005

A fairly good view of this flag can be seen at www.hbba.net/flagpole_gallery.php?directory=slides&currentPic=8. Even though a small part of the seal is hidden behind the flagpole it gives a clear illustration of what I meant about the seal.
Ned Smith, 2 September 2005

Hamlet of Hampton Bays

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 September 2005

A (light?) blue flag, approx. 3:5, charged with a flat representation of an ICS "hotel" signal flag (approx. 5:8 white and red vertical bicolor) on the top hoist and with a flat representation of an ICS "bravo" signal flag (red swallowtail) on the bottom fly, these standing for the initials of "Hampton Bays". Overall, partly overlapping the bottom fly of "hotel" and the upper hoist of "bravo", a large white disc bearing a small black (rope-less) anchor and the wording "Hampton Bays" arched a along its top edge and "Settled 1740" arched a along its bottom edge, set in red sans capitals.

Based on a good idea, quartered signal flags on a contrastive background, a quite uninspired design was attained, and even its cloth realization was inaccurate: The flat photo found by Valentin shows that the anchor is not centered on the disc, that the disc is not centered on the flag and that the two flags' corners do not meet and that.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 September 2005

The hamlet of Hampton Bays is part of the Town of Southampton, in Suffolk County, NY. Its flag was adopted by a contest run by a voluntary civic association, the Hampton Bays Beautification Association www.hbba.net/history.html - "Another important area that HBBA deals with is improving the physical appearance and aesthetics of our Hamlet. This is done through many ways ...Some of these include:...the Hamlet flag project with its product …our Hamlet Flag."

This contest was held about 2000- from an HBBA webpage no longer online but in the Google cache and dated "Fall 2000: "This important sense of spirit has been fostered by activities such as our annual free concerts on the beach, our holiday decorations, our voice in the public forums, our flag contest and new Hamlet flag, ..."

Flags for so-called hamlets in New York State are pretty rare. As used in NY "hamlet" is an unofficial term for named areas without any official existence as a civil subdivision. The US Census Bureau refers to communities such as these as "other designated places". Hamlets in NY are merely parts of Towns and have no separate incorporation nor have they any governmental structure apart from the larger town government. Thus any hamlet flags which exist will have to come about by the initiative of interested private citizens.

Ned Smith, 2 September 2005