The Township of Chester is a beautiful community with a rich history in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Our municipality was one of the first municipal districts established by William Penn during his first visit in 1682, when he divided the territory into counties. The first official recognition was at the court held on October 17, 1683. At this court a jury of seventeen people was enlisted to create a convenient highway leading from Providence to Chester. During this time the Township of Chester included the city of Chester, and Upland Borough. During the court held on July 1, 1684, Richard Crosby and Edward Carter were appointed collectors of the county levies and at that same court Richard Few was appointed Constable.

The Pusey House is the only remaining house that is known to have been visited by William Penn. During the time of its erection in 1683, this territory today in Upland Borough was still part of the Township of Chester. Caleb Pusey and his family came to Pennsylvania in 1682 along with William Penn on the ship “Welcome”. Pusey was commissioned t serve as a manager and agent for Chester Mills, the first proprietary saw and grist mill to be established by Penn in the colony. During the Revolutionary War the Township of Chester suffered greatly from the depredations of the British army.

William H. Green saw the opportunity for the Township of Chester to be presented as an industrial and manufacturing business point. in 1864 he purchased land on Delaware Avenue and Reaney Street and built Vulcan Works, converting steel, iron and brass into valves. In 1888 he made several valves for the Philadelphia Water Department each weighing 6 tons. At the time they were the largest valves made in the world. Today, the Township of Chester hosts three thriving industrial parks: the I-95, Bridgewater, and Chester Creek industrial parks.

The Township of Chester has always been diverse, proud, safe and a community of unity. The first vote by an African-American man in Pennsylvania was cast in the Township of Chester by William Henry Cooper on April 14, 1870. The Township of Chester was the center on which many of Delaware County’s townships were based, derived, modeled after and populated from.