The Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch St is purported to be the site where the seamstress and flag-maker Betsy Ross (1752-1836) lived when she sewed the first American Flag. Ross never owned this house, but rented here between the years of 1773 and 1786. The house was built about 1740 and consists of 3-1/2 floors with six rooms plus an attic. Betsy and her husband, John, lived here and ran their upholstery business out of the house as well.
During the last decades of the 18th century and for much of the 19th century, however, the house was a small, nondescript, colonial period building. Its rise to fame began in the 1870s, as the nation prepared to celebrate its centennial in 1876. In 1870, Betsy Ross’s grandson, William Canby, delivered a speech at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania claiming that Betsy Ross made the first flag. The American public quickly embraced this family story, for which there was no real evidence, as fact.
When pressure to further develop the 200 block of Arch Street for manufacturing threatened the “flag house,” artist Charles H. Weisberger crafted a plan to save the house. Weisberger painted Birth of Our Nation’s Flag in 1892, depicting Betsy Ross presenting the flag to General George Washington, George Ross, and Robert Morris (an event that likely never happened). He then helped organize the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association. The group’s goal was to purchase and maintain 239 Arch Street as a historic site, which they did.
By the 1930s however, the site was in need of major restoration work, the result of decades of use. In 1937, local radio manufacturer A. Atwater Kent responded to the concerns of local preservationists and offered to pay up to $25,000 to restore the property. The restored house opened with all 8 rooms available for visitation on Flag Day: June 14, 1937. He also purchased the two adjacent properties, which he gave to the City of Philadelphia in 1941.
Despite the questions about whether Betsy Ross sewed the flag as well as whether she actually lived at 239 Arch (she possibly lived at 241 Arch, which is now the house garden), the Betsy Ross house is one of the most visited sites in Philadelphia.
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