Free previewStop 8 of Philadelphia Walking Tour: Independence Hall to Elfreth's Alley
The Flag House Next Door
You're standing on Arch Street in Old City, in front of the little brick house with the flag out front. Look at the front of it: narrow, tall, and squeezed in tight. The front part went up around 1740, in the Pennsylvania colonial style. Hold on to that picture, because the question of which house this really is turns out to be the whole story.
Betsy Ross was an upholsterer, a working tradeswoman, born in 1752 and gone by 1836. Here's the catch with this address: had she lived here, she would have moved in around 1776, the year her first husband, John Ross, died, and stayed until about 1779. That "had" is doing a lot of work.
The story everyone knows is that she sewed the first American flag. But that story didn't come from the Revolution.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 8 of Philadelphia Walking Tour: Independence Hall to Elfreth's Alley (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
