Historic commission member Steve traces Westtown history and highlights planned parkland acquisition

Steve, a member of the Westtown Historic Commission, delivered a detailed illustrated lecture about Westtown Township's history and recent preservation efforts, recounting early settlement, wartime episodes and the conversion of farmland to schools and housing while noting a current land-acquisition effort.

The presentation began with a brief overview of settlement and population change: "this is a brief history of West Town Township," Steve said, telling the audience the township was "established in 1685, second oldest Township in Chester County," and describing slow population growth until a mid-20th-century housing boom. He traced Indigenous travel routes and archaeological finds, early land records tied to William Penn and the Wales tract, and named early settler families including the Hickmans, Hoops and Aaron James, the latter of whom ran a local pottery operation.

Steve spent much of the talk on built and landscape heritage: colonial-era ruins and markers, prominent farms and homes, and institutional histories including the Pennsylvania epileptic hospital and Westtown School, which he said was founded in 1799 and later served as a boarding school with farming, brickmaking and other self-sustaining operations. He recounted military episodes from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War and highlighted local veterans including Isaac Wyers of the U.S. Colored Troops; Steve said weapons associated with some veterans were later found and entered museum or private collections.

On contemporary preservation, Steve said the township is actively pursuing land to preserve open space. "We are now in the process acquiring 200 Acres at Cray Billy Farm for a passive recreational park," he told attendees, framing the move as part of ongoing conservation efforts. He also noted planned marker installations and local preservation activity. When discussing financial context he said, "I think the Township's spending six million right now" in reference to an athletic or assembly facility project tied to other township work.

The talk included examples of 20th-century change: conversion of Maple Shade Farm and other properties into school campuses and housing developments, the adaptive reuse of a Victorian mansion that was nearly demolished in the 1970s, and long-running neighborhood institutions such as a pottery, quarrying operations, and early crossroads businesses. Steve also reviewed transportation history from Indian trails to the 19th-century railroad (with passenger service ending locally in the late 20th century), a proposed but unbuilt trolley line, and short-lived local air-mail operations that older residents recalled.

During a closing question-and-answer period, a questioner asked why Oakor (the station) had come to be located on the Thornbury side of the road; Steve replied he did not know and suggested deed and archive research for precise boundary history. The lecture concluded with an invitation to take free copies of the history book on the table and an announcement of a future lecture in October.

The presentation provided local residents with archival detail and pointers for further research; it also flagged a significant near-term preservation step in the township's reported attempt to secure roughly 200 acres for passive parkland.