Kennett Square Village 1750-1840s

This home, built for Dr. Isaac D. Johnson in 1901, houses the Kennett Heritage Center and the Kennett Underground Railroad Center.   Dr. Isaac D. Johnson (1827 – 1911) was a mechanic, inventor, author & physician. In 1858, Johnson, ... Read more

Before European settlers came to this region it was populated by the Lenni-Lenape Indians.  The name Kennett originates with Francis Smith who came here in 1686.  He was a native of Wiltshire, England, in which there is a village called ... Read more

This was the site of a 2-story stone house built by John Taylor in the early 1800s. John was the grandfather of Kennett’s most notable citizen, Bayard Taylor. Taylor was born here in 1825 and was a 19th-century author, diplomat, poet, and... Read more

Joseph Musgrave built a 2 1/2 story brick house on the left-hand side (LaVerona) of this site in 1767.  In 1804, John Taylor (grandfather of Bayard Taylor) bought the building which housed a store, post office, and was a stagecoach stop. T... Read more

Originally built as two houses, the west side is a 2-bay Penn Plan built in 1832 and the east side is a 4-bay Federal style built the following year.  The two houses were deeded separately as residences until 1910. In 1926 the DiPaolo fam... Read more

In 1813, Quaker villagers petitioned Old Kennett Meeting for a meeting house in Kennett Square. A stone building known as State Street Meeting, was erected on a 3-acre parcel. The stone building was razed in 1873 so that a larger brick buil... Read more

Samuel Martin a Quaker, like most of the townfolk in his time, was a teacher and builder. He began his teaching career in 1824 and built this boarding school ca. 1833. In 1843 he built Kennett Square Female Academy - now Kennett Friend... Read more

Samuel Martin built some of the houses here in the late 1830s and 1840s. Most of them are built in a 2-bay Penn Plan configuration.  

In 1844, brothers Samuel, Morton and Jesse Pennock bought several tracts of land to build their agricultural implements foundry and factory. Their father Moses Pennock, known as the genius farmer, held several patents for improvements to fa... Read more

These two sets of row houses were built ca. 1846 by Gideon Swayne for S & M Pennock. Members of the Pennock family were given or bought the houses and leased them to employees of the Pennock foundry.    

Edwin Brosius moved from his parent's farm in Upper Oxford Township to Kennett Square in 1845. The Brosius family farm was a known station on the Underground Railroad.  Edwin learned the potter's trade from his father, Mahlon Brosius, who�... Read more

In 1847, The Pure Spring Water Company, a private company, was organized to satisfy the demand for water created by the housing boom of 1840’s.  Two pit reservoirs were dug on the south side of East Linden Street where the parking garage... Read more

Hiram Hall divided a 12-acre parcel into building lots along the west side of “the road to Unionville.” Built in the 2 or 3 bay Penn Plan, exterior features of this period are double chimneys, brick dentil molding, attic dormers with an... Read more