CHESTER, - Delaware County PA History

CHESTER, !lENNSYLVANIA. 9
1880 the population within the districts mentioned was over
twenty-two thousand persons, but the growth and development
of the city and its suburbs has been so marked, that, basing the
estimate upon the canvas made recently for a city directory,
and upon the votes polled at State and Presidential elections, a
careful calculation indicates that the population of the territory
alluded to is not less than thirty thousand people.
The territory in which the Board of Trade is interested, and
whose welfare is sought by them, lies along the shore of the
Delaware river, a distance of 16 miles southwest from Philadelphia,
and extends along the river in the same direction for four
miles, reaching back from the river about I ~ miles, and covers
an area of about six square miles, embracing w;~hin its limits
the City of Chester, Borough of South Chester and Upland,
and parts of the townships of Ridley and I.ower Chichester.
More than three-fourths of the river front is now occupied by
manufactories of iron, steel rails, iron plates for ships, edge
tools, cotton and woolen goods, ship yards, print works, chemical
works, &c. There are still a few choice sites for manufactories,
which, however, in the ordinary course of affairs, cannot
remain long unoccupied. \Vithin these limits there are upwards
of 6000 dwellings, classified as follows: Brick, 44I 9 i
Stone, 347; Frame, 1587. It will be noticed in this classification
that more than three-fourths of the whole number are built
of fire-proof material. and as the number of brick houses being
built greatly exceeds the number of those being built of other
material, this proportion will constantly increase.
H
YE OLDEN TOWNE."
Chester is the oldest town in Pennsylvania, the first permanent
lodgment of Europeans being made here about 1644,
when its site was occupied and cultivated as a tobacco plantation
by farm servants of the Swedish company, under whose
authorit}f and supervision the settlements along the Delaware
were made.
It was hel'e that the most important acts of govel:nment were
for the fil'st time exercised in the commonwealth, and for