UNIDENTIFIED PAPER

(Waupaca Post or Waupaca Republican)

October 5, (1870s-1890s)

 

THE STARS AND STRIPES

The House in Which the First American Ensign Was Made

 

            On Arch street, below Third, stands a little old building, two stories and a half high, bearing a sign which informs the passer-by that within the house was made the first American flag and that in these days he can buy beer or liquor there.

            Early in 1777 a committee appointed by the Continental Congress to select a design for a National flag went with General Washington to the little shop of Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, at 239  Arch Street, to have their ideas embodied in bunting.  Mrs. Ross was a milliner whose principal business was among the Quaker ladies, and in the projecting window were hung the correct forms of the brown and drab bonnets about whose make up the women of the Friends’ society were and are as particular as the lady who now stops one’s view of the theater.  General Washington sketched on a scrap of paper the design agreed upon. There were thirteen white stars ranged in a circle.  There is a tradition that General Washington ordered that the stars have six points.  She won the day by showing her visitors how a star with five points could be made with one clip of her scissors.  The flag was made in her little back room, and on July 14 of the same year Congress adopted the design as the national banner.

            The building has changed but little since then.  A large tree which stood in front of it during the revolution survived until 1876, when it became dangerous and was cut down.  But the house stands as it did then. Even Mrs. Ross’ show-window is preserved and the wooden shutters on the second-story windows and the dormer-window in the sharply sloping roof are the same that looked down on Arch Street a hundred years ago.

            The bar-room would even now be recognized as Mr. Ross’ shop if one of that committee could now revisit it. Passing from this room through a narrow entry and up two steps, one enters Mrs. Ross’ work-room, where, without doubt, the flag was cut out and sewed together.  It is even now a queer old room.  On its furthest end is the old fireplace now covered with wall-paper, but showing at the top a row of the blue and white tiles which once surrounded it.  Built into one corner is a three-cornered wooden cupboard.  The very locks and knobs on the doors are of the pattern of the last century.  The stairways of this house are all winding and very narrow.  That leading to the cellar is very steep.  The attic is still floored with the puncheon boards which once were the only flooring in the house – an inch thick and eighteen inches wide.  The only new thing about the whole structure is a back kitchen, built within the last few years.

            Mrs. Amelia Mund, a comely German widow, who keeps the tavern and owns the property, told what she knew of the history of the building since the time of Mrs. Ross.  “It was occupied as a tailor’s shop for many years, and my husband bought it over forty-five years ago.  Neither he nor I would allow anything to be changed unless an absolute necessity to keep the building from going to pieces.  It is strong and well-built, and has needed very little repairing.  When the floor of what was the shop was taken up some years ago the original floor was taken away, as it could not be kept from falling into the cellar.  People came from long distances to get pieces of it as relics, and one gentleman had a board made into a table and draped it with the American flag.  The house until two or three weeks ago never had a sign to tell people that the first American flag was made here, but I thought people ought to know.  Any way, I’ve had no end of visitors to inquire about the old house.  Not many of them were Philadelphians, for they don’t seem to care much about the relics of the Revolution nowadays, but a great many Western people and visitors to the city have come to this house and taken as much interest in it as they did in Independence Hall.

            On either side of No. 239 are tall buildings used for manufacturing purposes, and the space this relic of history occupies is becoming too valuable for it to stay there much longer.  Mrs. Mund says she wishes the Historical Society would buy the building and move it out to the park beside William Penn’s Letitia street house.  Several ladies have already become interested in this project, and the Historical Society is said to have it under consideration.                                – Philadelphia Press