Betsy Ross House - Philadelphia

The Betsy Ross House is located on Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The home was originally built in 1740 in the Bandbox Style, and served as a shop and residence.  By 1776 the building was occupied by Betsy Ross, a local upholsterer, who, legend states, was visited here by George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross (who was the uncle of Betsy's recently deceased husband, John) on a mission to find someone to create a flag for the new country.  Washington presented the 24 year old widow with a sketch of the flag and asked her if she could make it.  She replied that she would try and eventually made what would become the nation's first American flag.  Much of what happened here that day has been debated over the years by historians, since most of the information comes from the family's oral history.  However true or false the tales might be, in May of 1777 Betsy was paid a sum of money by the Pennsylvania State Navy Board expressly for the making of flags, and on July 14, 1777 Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.  It is thought that Betsy resided here from 1776 to 1779, and during that time she married her second husband, Joseph Ashburn, a mariner, who later died in England, a prisoner of the British during the Revolution.  She married her third husband, John Claypool in 1783 and remained together until his death in 1817.  Betsy died on January 30, 1836 at the age of 84.  It wasn't until 40 years later, during the U.S. Centennial in 1876, that the house was first promoted as the birthplace of the American flag by the Mund family, who currently occupied the home.  From that time forward there was great interest in the home and it's history.  In 1898 the house was purchased by the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association, who saved the structure from destruction and opened it as a museum.  In 1937 a complete renovation of the house took place.  In 1976 Betsy Ross and her third husband, John Claypool, were disinterred from their graves at Mount Moriah Cemetery, and reinterred here in the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House.  Today the house continues to operate as a museum.  

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