Edition: U.S. / Global

CURRENTS: ARCHITECTURE; So Gallantly Streaming In Baked-On Ceramic

Published: July 4, 2002

Oh, say, can you name the woman who sewed the Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem? No, it was not Betsy Ross. It was Mary Young Pickersgill, a professional flag maker who was hired by the United States Army to create a 30-by-42-foot flag in 1813. A year later, it flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Key to write the poem that became the anthem. Since 1927, Pickersgill's 1793 harborside house has been open to the public as the privately financed Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, and it is now expanding. On June 17, ground was broken for a $3.5 million War of 1812 Museum, designed as an extension of the house by RCG Architects of Baltimore. Its centerpiece will be a 30-by-42-foot glass wall with a baked-on ceramic pattern of 15 broad stripes and 15 bright stars. The Pickersgill flag belongs to the Smithsonian Institution, which is restoring it. There was talk of sewing a copy for the Baltimore museum, said Jonathan Fishman, the lead architect for RCG, but museums don't usually stock copies.

Michael Vergason, the project's landscape architect, will include a fountain with a three-and-a-half-foot-high bronze spool of thread and water jets that look like sewing needles. The new museum is expected to open on Flag Day, June 14, 2003. The Flag House, at 844 East Pratt Street in Baltimore, is open Tuesday through Saturday; admission, $5. For information: (410) 837-1793, or www.flaghouse.org. BRAD McKEE

Photo (RCG Architects)