Birmingham Township
The Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse
The Birmingham Meeting started at the home of William Brinton of Birmingham township. There were talks about having an actual meetinghouse in Birmingham, and it wasn't until 1718 they proposed a building for their monthly meetings at the former Richard Webb property. It took them many years to build their current meetinghouse, which was founded in 1726. The building was completed in 1763. The Philadelphia Quaker Meeting organized a school in Birmingham in 1753. During the 1827 Quaker schism, the meeting was split between the Hicksites and the Orthodox branches of that faith. That dispute turned on the degree to which slavery should be opposed and whether the faith still retained the purity advocated by Founder George Fox.
During the Revolutionary War, the meetinghouse was the centerpoint of the British and American Battle of Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777). After the battle it was used a hospital for the wounded.
The John Chad Home
The John Chad house was one of the earliest built in Chester County. The house was built circa 1712 by John Wyeth for John Chad, who had inherited his father's 500-acre plantation along the Brandywine River. John began not only a tavern on the property, but also a ferry service across the Brandywine. It was at the ferry that the Continental Army sought to stop the British from marching to capture Philadelphia in September, 1777.
"From northern Delaware, the British marched north toward the Baltimore Pike (Rte. 1) arriving in a small village known as Kennett Square on September 9th and 10th. The Americans saw this as a plan to assault Philadelphia and Washington marched his army through Philadelphia to stop the British advance at Brandywine Creek near a ferry site called John Chad’s ford. The Americans took the high ground near the Chad house (Creek Rd) and awaited a full frontal assault. They sent skirmishers as far as the Kennett Meeting but those forces were quickly overwhelmed."
-Mark Ashton, Chester County: A Modern History
Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery
After the events at Brandywine in September 1777, fallen soldiers from both sides were buried in a mass grave nearby the Birmingham Meetinghouse. A stone marker was placed in 1920 to recognize the soldiers who fought bravely at the Battle of Brandywine. The then 22 year old Marquis de Lafayette was shot in the leg just down the road from the cemetery during the battle. He would return to the battlefield in July 1825 to mark nearly 50 years since that fateful day.
Remembering Lenape Park
It started out as a normal park for those who needed a nice getaway from their busy lives in the city. As early as the 1850s when people began to travel to Pocopson Township to picnic at what was then Lenape Park. Overtime, park operators built dance floors and carousels and other recreational rides to attract more people. In the 1890s, railroads began to be built in the area, including a railroad stop in Birmingham Township and a trolley line for West Chester residents. Ever since then, over 1,000 visitors visited Lenape Park. When large-scale amusement park competitors came around like Six Flags Great Adventure and Dorney Park, Lenape Park began to lose its popularity and closed in 1985.
The park was renamed as the Brandywine Picnic Park. In 2022, the park was sold to a new owner in hopes to revise the park.
Bibliography
"About Cemetery." Birmingham Lafayette Cemetery. Accessed June 19, 2025. https://blcemetery.com/#about.
Chambless, John. "Remembering the fun of years gone by." Chester County Press (blog). April 1, 2019. https://www.chestercounty.com/2019/04/01/193666/remembering-the-fun-of-years-gone-by.
Futhey, John Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881): 80, 233-234.
"John Chads House." Chadds Ford Historical Society. Accessed May 24, 2025. https://chaddsfordhistory.org/our-houses/john-chads-house/.
Maye, Fran. "Historic Brandywine Picnic Park sold; new owners plan recreational use." Daily Local News. Last modified May 20, 2022. https://www.dailylocal.com/2022/05/20/historic-brandywine-picnic-park-sold-new-owners-plan-recreational-use/.
Wardle, Lisa. "Defunct and abandoned amusement parks across Pennsylvania." Penn Live. Last modified October 20, 2016. https://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/2016/10/abandoned_amusement_parks_pa.html.