Premier Fence Supply Store in Chester City, PA

About Chester, PA

Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Delaware Valley on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is the oldest city in Pennsylvania and was the location of William Penn’s first arrival in the Province of Pennsylvania. It was the county seat for Chester County from 1682 to 1788 and of Delaware County from 1789 to 1851. Chester evolved over the centuries from a small town with wooden shipbuilding and textile factories into an industrial powerhouse producing steel ships for two World Wars and a myriad of consumer goods. Since the mid-twentieth century, it has lost its manufacturing base and over half of its residents and devolved into a post-industrial city struggling with pollution, poverty, and crime. == History == === Early history === The Indian 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 Indian 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.