Joseph Rakestraw (d. 1794)

Joseph Rakestraw was a Philadelphia-based master builder in the second half of the eighteenth century. Although it is unknown when he became a member, by the 1760s he played an important role in the Carpenters’ Company. The Rakestraw family associated with the Carpenters’ Company during the organization’s early days; Joseph’s father, also named Joseph, was an early member and his mother was the sister of Joseph Fox. Besides his father and maternal uncle, two of Joseph’s cousins also joined the Company, another Joseph and a more distant cousin, William Rakestraw. Evidently, the Rakestraws were heavily involved in the trade and devoted to serving the Company.

In 1768, Rakestraw served as one of the Company’s wardens and later, in 1774, became an Assistant. In 1779, Rakestraw became the President of the Carpenters’ Company. Additionally, he served on the crucial Committee Regulating the Rules of Measuring which established the prices of most carpentry work in Philadelphia. Besides constructing domestic dwellings, Rakestraw helped repair Independence Hall in 1788-1789 and helped with building Library Hall the following year and the President’s House the year after that. His practice was not limited purely to designing and constructing buildings as he surveyed and leveled the bed for the canal between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers in 1785. Interestingly, George Washington commissioned Rakestraw to make a new weathervane for Mount Vernon in 1787. Evidently, the late 1780s were a busy time for Rakestraw’s professional practice, yet he still found time participate in charitable organizations during this time. In 1784, Joseph Rakestraw, along with fellow Carpenters’ Company member Gunning Bedford, was elected as  Managers of Contributors to the Corporation for Relief and Employment of the Poor in Philadelphia.

Partially written by Roger W. Moss, Philadelphia Architects and Builders website. 

Pennsylvania Gazette, May. 12th, 1784. "At a Meeting..."