Timeline of West Chester History,
1793-1956
- 1793: The first Roman Catholic congregation was established
in
West Chester.
- 1799/03/20: The town of West Chester was elevated to a
borough.
- 1799: The West Chester Fire Company, the first fire company
in
West Chester was founded in 1799.
- 1804/01/01: The West Chester post office was established.
- 1805: West Chester's first criminal execution, of a black
woman
named Hannah Miller, took place.
- 1814: The Bank of West Chester was founded on High Street
almost
directly across from the court house.
- 1823: West Chester received its first sidewalks, made of
brick.
The first MacAdam streets were laid in 1829-1830.
- 1824: The Apple Plumbing and Heating Company was founded in
1824.
It was located at 112-114 East Gay Street.
- 1829-1830: Gay and Church Streets in West Chester were paved
for
the first time.
- 1831: West Chester built a new, bigger market on Market
Street
and enlarged it several times in the subsequent 20-25 years.
- 1832: A railway spur was constructed from West Chester to
Malvern, using yellow pine rails placed on stone sleepers.
- 1833: The second fire company in West Chester, the Good Will
Fire
company, was founded.
- 1838: The West Chester street plan expanded to include land
north
of the Matlack property on the north side; beyond the "old Turk's
Head or Patton estate" on the east side, and beyond John Rutter's
land on the northwest.
- 1838: The third fire company in West Chester, the Fame Fire
Company, was founded.
- 1841: West Chester received its first waterworks system on
land
purchased from Anthony Bolmar for $2344.28 and land from Joshua
Hoopes for $200. The reservoir and pumping station were located
at Marshall Square.
- 1846: The present West Chester court house was built.
- 1850s: One of several "underground railroad" routes passed
from
Kennett, East Bradford, West Chester, Willistown and on to
Philadelphia.
- 1851: West Chester received its first telegraph connection in
1851.
- 1852: West Chester received its first gas light company in
1852.
- 1853: Josiah Hoopes started his nursery with specimens
shipped
from "the great house of James Backus & Son of York, England.".
- 1857: Almost all of the sidewalks in West Chester were
bricked,
and its streets were much improved.
- 1858/11/11: The Pennsylvania Railroad took over the operation
of
the railway line between West Chester and Malvern, and the first
train reached West Chester from Philadelphia via Media.
- 1862: The population of Chester County was 77,000, and the
population of the state of Pennsylvania was 2,900,000.
- 1868: The firm of Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, manufacturer
of
wheels of all types, was founded by William and Thomas Hoopes.
The firm was located on Market Street just east of the railroad.
- 1871/09/25: The State Normal School opened under Dr. E. H.
Cook
(1871-1872).
- 1871: The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary founded the
Villa Maria Academy in West Chester.
- 1872: The Daily Local News was founded in West Chester.
- 1881/04/12: Patrick J. Barry started his own independent
hauling
business with four horses and four carts.
- 1883: The first telephones in West Chester were installed in
1883. The first customer was the Morning Republican, and others
included Hoopes Brothers & Thomas, Dr. John R. McClurg, S. A.
Kirk, Jerome Gray, The Daily Local, and The Village Recorder.
The first switchboard was installed over William Bell's grocery
store at 10 E. Gay Street, and Nathan Rambo was the first
switchboard operator.
- 1884: There were 50 telephones in West Chester.
- 1884: The West Chester Women's Christian Temperance Union was
founded, the first such group in Chesco. They met at the First
Baptist Church. Sixty women attended the first annual meeting.
- 1885: The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of West
Chester
was organized.
- 1887: The West Chester Board of Trade was organized.
- 1888/07: According to the Daily Local News, "Goose Creek is
one
of the filthiest streams that flow near West Chester. Nearly all
the sewage of the town flows into it, and, besides, a number of
water closets sit over it." Westtown farmers complained about
the pollution, since the stream flowed onto their property."
- 1889/11/11: Typhoid fever struck the east side of West
Chester.
- 1890: The first black graduate of a West Chester school was
William Moore, but Moore wasn't able to gain apprenticeship in
any of the trades in West Chester, and went on to Howard
University. He later became a teacher and principal of an all-
black school in Cape May, N.J.
- 1892/01/20: After the borough of West Chester decided to
extend
East Nields Street past the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks to the
borough line at Bolmar Street, a jury awarded damages of $300 to
A. D. Sharples and $105 to Pennsylvania Railroad for the use of
their land.
- 1892/09/19: The neighbors on South Franklin Street complained
about the smell emanating from the fill used to extend East
Nields Street and/or South Franklin Street. The author of this
editorial claimed that the most vile refuse from West Chester's
alleys was used as fill, including "rotten tomatoes, fruit, etc."
and "old oyster shells."
- 1892/09/30: The borough of West Chester announced plans to
extend
South Franklin Street to the city line at Rosedale Avenue. This
required two bridges over Goose Creek at the intersection of
South Franklin Street and Linden Street, because the creek made
an abrupt right-angle turn at that point.
- 1892/12/05: Scarlet fever struck two families on East Nields
Street. The first victims were the children of Elwood Smith,
then the Charles Arment children, followed by Mr. Arment and
another Smith child. All recovered.
- 1893/07/06: West Chester Streets Commissioner Eachus led an
inspection of the East Nields Street extension. At the time, a
gang of mostly Irish laborers were clearing brush and briars from
the "jungle" on the Pennsylvania Railroad property. They
obtained fill dirt to raise East Nields Street to the level of
the railroad from an excavation for an alley on property owned by
P. J. Jefferis, which ran from Matlack to Walnut Streets between
Nields and Lacy Streets.
- 1893: The Chester County Hospital began operation in a pair
of
small brick buildings on the north side of Marshall Square.
- 1893/09/12: The borough of West Chester built a "substantial
bridge" on East Nields Street over the small creek just east of
the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.
- 1894/10/05: Water pipes were laid from East Nields Street
north
along South Adams Street for a single square.
- 1894: The Gay Street School for African-American children
(later
Fugett School) was built in 1894 for $25,000 with seven teachers
and a principal.
- 1898: "West Chester was known far and wide as being friendly
to
the slave ... it is largely for this reason that so many colored
people have made and now make this city their home. They now
constitute about one fourth of the population, have a ward of the
city practically all to themselves, and have had representatives
in the Council."
- 1898: The Model school (later the "Demonstration School")
opened
on the West Chester Normal School campus.
- 1899: West Chester had about 140 long-distance telephones,
enabling `daily talks to Chicago and Boston, and now and then to
St. Louis.
- 1900: Male telephone operators were phased out around 1900
because they were "too sassy" to customers, often telling them to
wait for a connection.
- 1900: The Schramm company was founded in Philadelphia to make
air
compressors.
- 1901: there were 175 telephones in West Chester.
- 1905: The first automobile owner in West Chester was Joseph
H.
Sager, who bought a Locomobile in New York City for $850.
- 1910: The three fireboxes nearest to Riggtown (West Chester)
in
1910 were located at South Matlack and East Lacey Streets
(firebox #3-3), at High and East Nields Street (#3-5), and at
South Franklin and Union Streets (#3-6).
- 1912: Walter C. Baldwin founded the Baldwin Electric Shop at
20«
S. Church Street.
- 1914: The Villa Maria Academy moved from West Chester to its
present location at Immaculata and was chartered by the state of
Pennsylvania in 1921.
- 1917/fall: The company of "Chris. Schramm & Sons" got a
contract
to produce machinery for lowering aerial balloons. They bought a
building from the West Chester Engine Company to house the
operation.
- 1918/12/04: Patrick J. Barry died on December 4, 1918, at age
63
(or 70, according to the death announcement from the same
newspaper). During his lifetime, he erected quite a number of
nice dwellings of moderate size with modern conveniences for
working men."
- 1918: The Boy Scouts were chartered in Chester County. Their
headquarters was located in the Farmers and Mechanics Building in
West Chester.
- 1926: The State Normal School originally possessed ten acres
of
land, but by 1926 it had about sixty acres. Construction costs
of the buildings was around $1,000,000.
- 1927: The Girl Scouts were chartered in Chester County at the
suggestion of Mrs. Herbert Hoover following a "tea" held at the
home (named "Greystone") of Mrs. P. M. Sharples.
- 1928: Schramm, Inc. opened in West Chester in 1928 at 800 E.
Virginia Avenue.
- 1929: Grocery Store Products Company was founded sometime
after
WWI, and entered West Chester in 1929 when they purchased the
Edward H. Jacobs Co., producer of mushrooms. They marketed
mushrooms nationally under the brand name "BinB" (Broiled in
Butter), processed at facilities in West Chester and Kennett
Square.
- 1931/09/11: The "Goose Creek Fire" took place.
- 1931: The Mushroom Growers Cooperative Association was formed
under the leadership of William Maule.
- 1942/07: National Foam Systems Inc. a manufacturer of fire-
fighting hose in Boston, opened a plant in West Chester to
produce fire-fighting foam for the navy.
- 1944/07/17: Greenfield Park was built in Riggtown on land
donated
to the borough by realtor Harry F. Taylor.
- 1945/02/17: Joseph Cotter supervised the grading and
distribution
of fill in the "Riggins Lot" just south of Goose Creek. There
were plans to build a cannery there to supplement the cannery
already in operation along the railway in Willistown. The fill
came from rubbish collections in the neighborhoods adjoining
Goose Creek.
- 1946/05/22: Alonzo Harvey's "Saddlery Shop" opened for
business
at 539 South Franklin St. It mentioned that "Al Harvey [was]
formerly with M. S. Yearsley & Sons."
- 1952/07/11: The first diesel locomotive reached West Chester.
- 1956: By July 15, 1956, when the West Chester exchange
(Owen, later 696) went to dial operation, there were 12,000
telephones.
Return to the top of the page