Casa di Betsy Ross
Philadelphia
The Betsy Ross House is a little 1700s house on Arch Street. It is linked to the story of the first stars and stripes flag of the United States.
A small house full of stories
The front part of the house was built around 1740, the back part ten or twenty years later. It's a narrow house, with steep stairs and small rooms stacked one above the other. In the 1700s a shoemaker, a shopkeeper and an apothecary worked here. Probably from 1776 to 1779, Betsy lodged in two rooms owned by a widow.
The legend of the flag
In 1870 a relative of Betsy's told the story in public. It is said that in 1776 George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross showed her a drawing. It is said that Betsy answered: "I don't know, but I will try". Then she supposedly suggested changing the stars and showed, with a single cut, how to make them. There are no written documents, but some clues make the story possible.
Saved by a painter
At the end of the 1800s many old houses were being torn down. A group of citizens raised money to buy this one. The painter Charles Weisgerber came to live here with his family in 1898. He opened two rooms to visitors, to show where the meeting is said to have taken place.
