Over Independence Day weekend, I learned a little bit of American history that I had never heard of before. I learned about the Freedom Flyer. Have you heard about this? This is the name given to the metal eagle ornament often seen in American homes hanging above the front door or garage door.
These are not as popular as they once were, but I have seen many in my life. Honestly, I never thought much about them. I always thought it was just an American piece, a patriotic symbol. After all, our national bird is the bald eagle.
The bald eagle was adopted on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782, after several design attempts that began just 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 its design began. After undergoing numerous changes, on June 20, 1782 the seal was officially adopted by the Continental Congress..” From there, the eagle became a standard American symbol of independence, strength, national identity, and the Republic. Eagles are on everything from the presidential seal, government buildings, our money, and the list goes on and on. In early American and Federal style architecture, eagles appeared on pediments, mantels, doors, signs, furniture, and above doors as patriotic ornament.
But in recent days, I have seen these metal eagle ornaments hanging over the front door or garage door in many American homes referred to as “freedom fliers.” I had never heard this name before, so this was new to me. And I saw people talking about the very specific meaning this ornament had in the 1940s and 1950s, so I did some research to find more information.
It turns out that after World War II, homeownership expanded greatly in the United States after service members returned from the war and took advantage of the Military Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill), with more than four million mortgage loans granted under this program. About 20% of all new homes built after the war were purchased by veterans. And when families paid their mortgages, they hung an eagle above their door to symbolize that the house belonged to them and that they were no longer in debt to the bank. It was a symbol of being mortgage free. Thus, during 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.
As I was reading about this meaning, I realized I have one of these! A “freedom pamphlet” hung over my paternal grandparents’ garage doors. And when my grandmother died and my uncles and aunts were trying to clean her house, they invited all of us grandchildren to see if we wanted anything. By the time I was able to go there, all the “good things” had been claimed (which, to be honest, I was perfectly fine with), but I wanted at least one small thing from her house. And I saw the eagle from his garage still there. No one had claimed it, so I took it home.
I had no plan for it, and in the intervening years it has been moved from room to room, box to box. I thought about hanging it in a corner of my workshop or something, but I didn’t really give it much thought beyond that. It was nothing more than a small souvenir from my grandparents’ house that would potentially be stored in a box for the rest of my life.
But after reading about this unique story, and after all these years I’ve held on to it, I was a little more excited to own my grandparents’ “freedom flyer.” So I decided to take it out of storage and dust it off. I didn’t measure 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 the front of our house. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room above the front door because our porch ceiling is so low.
So I’ll have to improvise a little and find another place to display it. I generally don’t like metallic decoration of any kind on the front of a house. Here in Texas, that is, the Lone Star State (where we are very proud of our state ), you will see a lot of metallic Lone Star decoration on the front of houses. I love Texas, but I’ve never been a fan of Lone Star decor. That’s just my personal taste. And I’ve never really been a fan of any kind of metal trim or decor in a house. Again, it’s just a matter of personal taste.
But in this case I’m going to make an exception. I am so excited to find the perfect place for my “freedom flyer” and I think it makes sense in our house. Our house was built in the late 1940s, when the meaning of “debt freedom” was booming. And as a bonus, Matt and I don’t have a mortgage. We paid for our house years ago. Plus, these are some mementos from my grandparents’ house that I can display in our house. I am so glad I learned the story of this “freedom flyer” and that it went from being a random metal ornament that would make me think, “What am I going to do with this? I don’t want to throw it away, but I don’t have room for it.”, every time I came across it, to wanting to proudly display it somewhere in the front of our house because of its historical significance and sentimental value.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical work, so I do most of the house work myself. You can learn more about me here.
