After a few last-minute changes, the new design for Newton’s city seal — in both monochrome and in color — will go before the City Council for a final vote on February 3.
In the interim, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller in her January 24 newsletter invited residents to take a survey to provide feedback on the new image created by Sebastian Ellington Ebarb Design (SEED).
“I know there are a lot of feelings about the city seal,” said Hattie Kerwin Derrick, Newton’s Director of Community Engagement & Inclusion and a member of the City Seal Working Group, during the presentation.
The Programs and Services Committee voted on January 22 to send the circular image to the full Council after Ebarb agreed to add in some changes suggested by Councilor R. Lisle Baker and other members.
Although Ebarb fulfilled his contract, he reassured Councilors, “I’m not going to leave you high and dry.”
“The [new] design depicts the quintessential view of Newton’s City Hall from across the ponds in front of it,” said Fuller. “The graphic designer included elements from original versions of City of Newton seals.”
Although the image presented to the committee was meant to be the final version of the new seal, with impressive speed Ebarb made rough updates as Councilors spoke, adding the tweaks several officials had suggested. These included:
- Placing the seal within a closed circle
- Adding a black line around the image itself, which Baker suggested
- Eliminating wrinkles/hash marks on the outer frame/ribbon
- Replacing “Liberty & Union” with “Liberty and Union”
- Altering the water element by adding subtle curves, which Councilor Stephen Farrell suggested
Other changes included:
- Spelling out both “City of Newton” and “Massachusetts”
- Highlighting the year 1688 because that is when Newton became an independent township
- Adding a tree, which “echoes the one on our current seal and amplifies Newton as ‘The Garden City,’” according to the Mayor. There are also bushes in front of City Hall, adding another natural element.
- Including the words “Thirteen Villages”
- Adding the color orange, since both high schools use it.
How the process began
“There is consensus around the need for a clean, replicable update and standardization is needed,” according to Kerwin Derrick’s January 22 presentation.
This consensus was reached after years of discussion and research conducted by the Ad Hoc City Seal Working Group.
As Fig City News previously reported, the group was created in 2020. In its 2021 report, members stated that the 1865 image included on previous seals “depicts a scene of Reverend John Eliot proselytizing to Native people, specifically the Massachusett, in 1646” and needed to change.
After years of work — listening to feedback from the community and Eastern Massachusetts Native groups — members of the Working Group concluded that a change was needed because “the seal does not sufficiently or accurately depict historical events … the design is outdated, unnecessarily complicated, and has degraded over time.”
If the new image is approved, “The emblem will be replaced gradually, as materials need to be reordered in the normal course of the existing budget. This is not a large one-time expenditure; it will not happen all at once,” according to Kerwin Derrick’s presentation.
Residents can find more information on the City’s webpage for the City Seal Working Group. For questions or to provide feedback, residents may email cityseal@newtonma.gov.
