Third Street House
In 1771, Chew purchased the former house of his client, Governor John Penn, on South Third Street in Philadelphia; Penn returned to England to settle his father Richard Penn Sr.'s estate. For almost five decades, the household on Third Street was filled by Benjamin and Elizabeth Chew, their son Benjamin, and their daughters Anna Marie, Elizabeth, Sarah, Margaret (Peggy), Juliana, Henrietta, Sophia, Maria, Harriet, and Catherine, all of whom were actively engaged in the social, civic, and cultural life of the nation's first capital. Three of the daughters retained ownership of the house until 1828.
The Chews entertained many visiting dignitaries, such as John Penn, Tench Francis Jr., Robert, Thomas, and Samuel Wharton, Thomas Willing, John Cadwalader, Chief Justice William Allen and his wife Margaret, daughter of Andrew Hamilton, Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, botanist John Bartram, Edward Shippen III, Edward Shippen IV, and Peggy Shippen, Thomas Mifflin, later to become Governor of Pennsylvania, and Brigadier General Henry Bouquet, hero of the French and Indian War.
Abigail Adams referred to Chews' daughters as part of a "constellation of beauties" in Philadelphia. Margaret Chew (1760–1824) married Maryland Governor John Eager Howard in 1787. Sophia (1769–1841) was invited to attend Martha Washington's first public event in Philadelphia. Harriet (1775–1861) was asked to entertain George Washington while his portrait was being painted. In 1800, she married the only son of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who built Homewood for them as a wedding gift. Throughout the Revolutionary War, George Washington aided the transfer of letters between Mr. and Mrs. Chew, during months when they were forced to live apart.
The Chew family's house on Third Street was situated between Spruce and Walnut Streets, next to the house of Samuel Powel, mayor of Philadelphia, and his wife, Elizabeth Willing Powel, who was one of George Washington's closest confidantes. "Led by Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Morris, and 'the dazzling Mrs. Bingham,' as Abigail Adams called her, the city embarked on a lavish program of public and private entertainment patterned on English and French models." Mrs. Adams reports being pleasantly surprised by "an agreeable society and friendliness kept up with all the principal families, who appear to live in great harmony, and we are met at all the parties [with] nearly the same company." After the death of their parents, Henrietta, Maria, and Catherine Chew vacated their house on South Third Street, and moved to a family-owned property on Walnut Street. In 1828, they sold the house on South Third Street, and in 1830, the building was razed.
