786 and finished in
1787 by John Reynolds. Some years later it was purchased at a sheriff's
sale by Ann Dunkin, who sold it in 1817 to Luke Wistar Morris, the son
of Captain Samuel Morris. Since that time it has remained in the Morris
family, and its occupants have maintained it in splendid condition. Much
beautiful old furniture, silver and china adorn the interior, most of
the pieces having individual histories of interest; in fact, the place
has become a veritable museum of Morris and Wistar heirlooms. Within a
few years the two old buildings that formerly adjoined the house to the
right and left were removed so that the house now stands alone with a
garden space at each side behind a handsome wrought-iron fence.

An enthusiastic horseman and sportsman, Samuel Morris was until his
death in 1812 president of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club in which
originated in November, 1774, the Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse,
better known as the City Troop, the oldest military organization in the
United States. In 1775 Morris was a member of the Committee of Safety,
and throughout the Revolution he served as captain of the City Troop and
as a special agent for Washington, in whose esteem he stood high. Later
he was a justice of the peace and a member of the Pennsylvania assembly
from 1781 to 1783. A handsome china punch bowl presented to Captain
Samuel Morris by the members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club is one
of the most prized possessions in the Morris house.

Any book devoted to the Colonial houses of Philadelphia might perhaps be
considered incomplete that failed to include the quaint little two and a
half story building at Number 229 Arch Street, with its tiny store on
the street floor and dwelling on the floors above. Devoid of all
architectural pretension and showing the decay of passing years, it is
nevertheless typical of the modest shop and house of its day, and it
interests the visitor still more as the home of Betsy Ross, who for many
years was popularly supposed to have made the first American flag. Betsy
Ross was the widow of John Ross, a nephew of one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, who had conducted an upholsterer's business
in the little shop. For a time after his death she supported herself as
a lace cleaner and by continuing the business of her husband.

The romantic tradition goes, unsupported by official record, that,
Congress having voted in June, 1777, for a flag of thirteen strip