Early history where
William Penn first landed in the
Province of Pennsylvania, in 1682 The indigenous tribe that owned the land where Chester now stands were the
Okehockings, removed by order of
William Penn in 1702 to other lands in Chester County. The original indigenous name of Chester was Mecoponaca, which means "the stream along which large potatoes grow". The first European settlers in the area were members of the
New Sweden colony. The settlement that became Chester was first called "Finlandia" (the Latin name for
Finland) and then "Upland" after the Swedish province of
Uppland. The New Sweden settlers built Fort Mecoponacka in 1641 to defend the settlement. In 1644, the present site of Chester was a tobacco plantation operated by the New Sweden colonists. By 1682, Upland was the most populous town of the new
Province of Pennsylvania. On October 27, the ship
Welcome arrived bearing
William Penn on his first visit to the province. Penn renamed the settlement after the English city of
Chester.
18th century burial ground is the burial location of
John Morton, one of 56 signators to the
U.S. Declaration of Independence Chester County originally stretched from the
Delaware River to the
Susquehanna River from its founding in 1682 until 1729 when
Lancaster County was formed from the western part. Chester served as the county seat for Chester County from 1682 to 1788. In 1789,
Delaware County was formed from the eastern part of Chester County, and Chester became the new county seat. The borough of Chester was governed under the charter granted by Penn in 1701 until March 5, 1795, when it was incorporated by the
Pennsylvania Assembly.
19th century In the 1700s and 1800s, Chester was a hub for business due to easy access to the Delaware River for the transport of raw materials and finished goods by ship. By the mid-1800s, many textile mills and factories were built along
Chester Creek including the Upland Mills by
John Price Crozer and the Powhattan Mills by
David Reese Esrey and Hugh Shaw. During the
War of 1812, a group of volunteers from Chester called the Mifflin Guards was raised and led by
Samuel Anderson. The troops were sent to
Fort DuPont to defend the Delaware River from the threatened attack of British Admiral
George Cockburn but did not see any action. In 1851, the Delaware County seat was moved from Chester to the borough of
Media. On February 14, 1866, Chester was incorporated as a city and the first mayor elected was
John Larkin, Jr. In 1871, the
Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was opened by
John Roach through the purchase of the
Reaney, Son & Archbold shipyard. The first steel ships of the U.S. Navy were built at the Roach shipyard. For the first 15 years of operation, it was the largest and most productive shipyard in the United States. More tonnage of ships were built at the Roach shipyard than its next two competitors combined. Roach built other businesses to supply materials for his shipbuilding including the
Chester Rolling Mill in 1873 to supply metal hull plates and beams, the
Chester Pipe and Tube Company in 1877 for the manufacture of iron pipes and boiler tubes, and the
Standard Steel Casting Company in 1883 to supply steel
ingots. Roach built the
Combination Steel and Iron Company in 1880 to supply steel rails and other products for businesses beyond the Roach shipyard. He lost control of the company after his shipbuilding enterprise entered
receivership in 1885.
20th century Chester was known as a freewheeling destination for vices such as drugs, alcohol,
numbers rackets, gambling and prostitution. Chester was widely known as Greater Philadelphia's "Saloon Town". By 1914, Chester had more saloons than police officers; approximately 1 saloon per every 987 residents. During and following
World War I, Chester grew significantly as people migrated to the city for jobs, 63% of which were in manufacturing. Between 1910 and 1920, Chester's population increased from 38,000 to 58,000 due to the influx of poor
Southern European and
Eastern European immigrants and
African-American migrants from the South, searching for employment in the city's expanding shipbuilding and manufacturing industries. The
Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. was opened in 1917 to build ships for the United States until its closure in 1990. The idled Roach shipyard was purchased in 1917 by
W. Averell Harriman to build
merchant ships during World War I, and renamed the
Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation. The shipyard closed permanently in 1923. Like many boomtowns, Chester was unprepared for the social changes that came along with rapid growth. As southern blacks migrated to Pennsylvania as part of the
Great Migration, racial violence broke out, racially segregated neighborhoods expanded and economic discrimination emerged. A
four-day race riot that resulted in seven deaths broke out in the city in July 1917, and the separation of blacks and whites in Chester's neighborhoods and workplaces became more defined. In 1927, the
Ford Motor Company opened the
Chester Assembly factory on the site of the previous Roach and Merchant shipyard and built cars there until its closure in 1961. Chester experienced its second growth period during
World War II. Manufacturing increased exponentially including companies such as
Wetherill Steel and Boilermakers,
Congoleum-Nairn,
Aberfoyles Textiles,
Scott Paper Company,
Belmont Iron Works,
American Steel Foundries,
Crew Levick Oil,
Crown Smelting,
Fields Brick Company,
Hetzel and
Ford Motor Company. The demonstrations were marked by violence and
police brutality with Chester being dubbed the "Birmingham of the North" by civil rights activist
James Farmer. Pennsylvania Governor
William Scranton became involved in the negotiations and convinced the protestors to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations by agreeing to hold hearings on the de facto segregation of public schools in Chester. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Committee determined that the Chester School Board had violated the law and the Chester School District was ordered to desegregate the city's six predominantly African-American schools. The city appealed the ruling, which delayed implementation, but the schools were eventually desegregated. In 1981, the location was declared a
Superfund cleanup site and remediation occurred throughout the 1980s. In 1989, the site was deemed safe and removed from the Superfund national priorities list. In 2004, the site was converted to a parking lot for
Commodore Barry Bridge Park. By the 1980s, Chester was a city bereft of industry. Many bottom-rung projects were initiated in Chester, including the
Westinghouse trash incinerator, a sewage treatment plant, and a
prison. Chester residents and politicians began pushing back against the placement of projects that increased concerns about pollution, noise, and trucks, such as a contaminated soil remediation facility, the trash incinerator, the DELCORA sewage waste treatment center and the Abbonizio recycling center. In 1995, the state designated Chester as a
financially distressed municipality.
21st century Recent programs to foster investment into Chester include the Pennsylvania
Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program, which incentivizes companies with state and local tax breaks to invest in KOZ-designated areas. The Wharf at Rivertown, a $60 million renovation of the
Chester Waterside Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company, originally built in 1918, provides recreational and office space for businesses.
Harrah's Casino and Racetrack began
harness racing in September 2006 and opened its
racino in January 2007.
Subaru Park, home of the
Major League Soccer Philadelphia Union franchise, opened in 2010. It was the 31st municipality to declare bankruptcy since the U.S. Congress offered the program in the 1930s.
National Register of Historic Places in Chester are:
Delaware County National Bank,
1724 Chester Courthouse,
Chester Waterside Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company,
Old Main and Chemistry Building,
Third Presbyterian Church,
William Penn Landing Site, and the former
Second Street Bridge. ==Geography==