Over Independence Day weekend, I learned a little American history that I had never heard of before. I learned about the Freedom Flyer. Have you heard about it? This is the name for the metal eagle ornament that is often seen hanging on American homes, either over the front door or over the garage door.
These aren’t as popular as they used to be, but I’ve seen a lot of them in my life. To be honest, I never really thought about it. I always thought it was just a piece of Americana – a patriotic symbol. After all, our national bird is the bald eagle. It was adopted on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782 after several design attempts began immediately after the Declaration of Independence.
According to the National Archives website: “Just hours after the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the first committee to design a seal for the United States was appointed and design began. After numerous changes, the seal was officially adopted by the Continental Congress on June 20, 1782.” From then on, the eagle became the standard American symbol of independence, strength, national identity and the republic. Eagles can be found on everything from the presidential seal to government buildings to our money, and the list goes on and on. In early American and Federal style architecture, eagles appeared in gables, mantels, gates, signs, furniture, and above doorways as a patriotic decoration.
But in the last few days I’ve been seeing these metal eagle ornaments called “freedom flyers.” I had never heard that name before, so this was new to me. And I saw people talking about a very specific meaning that this ornament had in the 1940s and 1950s, so I did a little research to find more information.
As it turns out, homeownership in America increased sharply after World War II as soldiers returned from war and took advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill), with over four million home loans made under that program. About 20% of all new homes built after the war were purchased by veterans. And when families paid off their mortgages, they hung an eagle over their door to symbolize that the house was theirs and they no longer owed the bank. It was a symbol of being mortgage free. So in the 1940s and 1950s the eagle had a double meaning. It was a patriotic symbol – a symbol of our nation. But it was also a symbol of personal freedom – freedom from debt.
When I read about this meaning I realized I have one of these! There was a “freedom flyer” hanging above my paternal grandparents’ garage doors. And when my grandmother died and my aunts and uncles were trying to clear out their house, they invited all of us grandchildren over to see if we wanted anything. By the time I was able to go there, all of the “good stuff” had already been picked up (which, to be honest, was fine with me), but I wanted at least a little something from their home. And I happened to see the eagle from her garage still there. No one had claimed it, so I took it home.
I had no plans for it and over the past few years it has been moved from room to room, box to box. I thought maybe I could hang it in a corner of my workshop or something, but beyond that I didn’t really think much about it. They were just a few memorabilia from my grandparents’ house that might be kept in a box for the rest of my life.
But after reading about this unique story and after all these years of holding on to it, being the owner of my grandparents’ “Freedom Flyer” was a little more exciting for me. So I decided to take it out of storage and dust it off. I haven’t measured it, but I’m guessing it’s about 18 inches wide and made of cast iron.
And now I really want to find a place for it in front of our house. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room for it above our front door because our porch ceiling is so low.
So I have to improvise a bit and find another place to display it. I typically don’t like metal trim of any kind on the front of a house. Here in Texas, i.e. in the Lone Star State (where we are very proud of our state ), you can see a lot of metal Lone Star decorations on the house facades. I love Texas, but I’ve never been a fan of the Lone Star decor. That’s just my personal taste. And I’ve never really been a fan of any metal trim or plaques on a house. Again, it’s just a matter of personal taste.
But in this case I’ll make an exception. I’m really excited to find the perfect spot for my “freedom flyer” and I think it makes sense in our home. Our house was built in the late 1940s, when the meaning of “debt freedom” was on the rise. And as an added bonus, Matt and I don’t have a mortgage. We paid off our house years ago. There are also a few memorabilia from my grandparents’ house that I can display at our house. I’m so glad I learned the story of this “Freedom Flyer” and that it was created from a random metal ornament that made me think, “What do I do with it? I don’t want to throw it away, but I don’t have room for it“Every time I came across it, I now wanted to proudly display it somewhere at the front of our house because of its historical significance and sentimental value.
