A study commissioned by the owners of Greenwood Cemetery and the Philadelphia Historical Commission into the purported residence of Benjamin Rush has found the house was built between 1830 and 1850, precluding the possibility that the Signer of the Declaration of Independence could have spent any time inside it since he died in 1813. It would have been a nice feather in the area’s cap if it had been Rush’s house since he was a player in the country’s founding and it would have led to more speculation as to what other founding fathers may have visited or even stayed in the house.
It’s still an old house though and the press release indicates that these findings clear the way for the structure’s restoration back into it’s correct historical context, i.e. a house from the middle 1800s. It also coincides with the re internment of some 3000 graves currently being moved from the back of the cemetery to the front so that Cancer Centers Of America may build a parking lot and possibly buildings on land adjacent to their center.
