West Chester: 225 Years of History (Virtual)

The Borough of West Chester is the second County Seat for Chester County, one of William Penn’s three original counties. This presentation will include a short overview of events prior to Penn’s Proprietorship beginning in 1681 to the incorporation of the Borough of West Chester in 1799.The various Chester County Court House locations from the Proprietorship to the present will be identified. We will examine some of the Quaker farmsteads as the growth moves from along the Delaware River to the interior with a special focus on a tavern known as the Turk’s Head.

About the Speaker: Tom Walsh was born and raised in Chester County and taught 25 years in the Owen J Roberts School District. Over the years Tom has been very active in the Borough of West Chester. His service to the Borough includes the Board of Historical Review (a forerunner to HARB and no longer in existence), Planning Commission, Regional Planning Commission, and Recreation Commission, and he presently chairs the Historical Commission. Tom works with the Christian C Sanderson Museum, National Iron and Steel Museum and previously served on the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame as well as the West Goshen Historical Commission. After the death of Paul Rodebaugh Tom led walking tours and taught local history courses for the Chester County Night School (now Chester County Lifelong Learning).

Admission is Pay as You Wish! Your donation is greatly appreciated. All proceeds benefit the development of future programming and the preservation of the History Center and its collections. The History Center is home to over 750,000 manuscripts, 100,000 photographs, and 70,000 artifacts. Your donation helps us to preserve and share those resources.

Register here for this pay-as-you-wish event

Presentation is via Zoom, and will be recorded and available for 7 days for all registered participants. We will email out a Zoom link the day of the presentation, and email a link to the recording within 24 hours. Note: the Zoom link emailed out the day of the presentation only takes you to the live presentation; the link emailed out the day after will contain the recorded version.

This presentation is made possible by the generous support of The Haverford Trust Company.