The claim that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag here, in response to a committee including George Washington, rests almost entirely on a family anecdote recorded eighty years after the supposed event. Most historians are skeptical. None of this matters to the quarter-million visitors who come every year, and it doesn't need to: the 1740s house at 239 Arch Street is a genuine piece of colonial Philadelphia, authentically preserved and well interpreted, and the story of Betsy Ross herself — an upholsterer who ran her own business after three husbands died — is compelling regardless of the flag question.
The house is operated by a nonprofit and admission is cheap. The tour is short and the costumed interpreters are better than average. The taproom in the basement has been excavated and reconstructed, and a gallery next door handles the historical complexity honestly. Combine it with Elfreth's Alley around the corner and the African American Museum down the block for a solid Old City morning.