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'Chester' is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania located just to the south of Philadelphia, population 36,854 at the 2000 census.
Chester's most famous son may well be John Morton, who cast the deciding vote on the Declaration of Independence. However, Ethel Waters of jazz fame was born here on October 31, 1896, and Martin Luther King Jr. obtained his Bachelor of Divinity here in 1951 from Crozer Theological Seminary. Jameer Nelson, point guard of the Orlando Magic and alumnus of St. Joseph's University, also hails from the city. He led the Chester High School Clippers to a PIAA State Championship in 2000.
Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan and composer Alex North are also Chester natives (see list below).

Contents

History

Geography

Demographics

Transportation

General Overview

Major Highways & Bridges

Public Transportation

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools

Colleges and universities

Items of Interest

Notable natives

External links

History

The colonial settlement that became Chester was first known as "Finlandia," then "Upland" by the Swedes who were the first European colonial settlers in the area in 1644. The area was a part of the Swedish colonization in North America, named New Sweden. William Penn first landed on the soil of the Province of Pennsylvania in Upton on October 27, 1682, via the ship ''Welcome''. Penn renamed the settlement, then the province's most populous town, after the English city of Chester. Chester served as the county seat for Chester County, which then stretched from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna River. In 1789, the city became the county seat for the newly created Delaware County (whereupon Chester County became landlocked, with West Chester as its county seat), but the county seat was finally moved to the borough of Media in 1851. The historic courthouse is located near the new City Hall building.
Chester's naval shipyard supplied the Union during the Civil War, and the United States in subsequent wars until the shipyard at Philadelphia became dominant after World War II. Two ships of the United States Navy have been named USS ''Chester'' in honor of the city. The Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, later Pennsylvania Shipyard & Dry Dock Company, was also located in Chester, but was closed in 1990. A state corrections facility now occupies part of the former commercial shipyard. Construction began on Harrah's Casino and Racetrack on the rest of the former Sun Shipbuilding site in the spring of 2005. The horse racetrack opened in September 2006 with the casino following in January 2007.
The 1950 census counted more than 65,000 residents, but subsequent decades saw decline. The naval shipyard and automobile manufacturing plants that had contributed to the war effort started pulling out of the city in the 1960s.
The site ''Penn's Landing'', which marks Penn's first landing in the Province, had to sell their naming rights to the waterfront maintenance corporation in Philadelphia, whose memorial marks William Penn's first landing in that city.
A CityTeam Ministries center was established in the city in 1988, with the financial assistance of Kimberly-Clark (formerly the Scott Paper Corporation), in order to combat the growing poverty through drug addiction recovery houses, churchplanting efforts, workforce development, and vocational training.
Poverty made the city eligible for Pennsylvania's Keystone Opportunity Zones [1] program, which offers local and state tax breaks for firms that invest in a designated area. In 2005, the program brought a wharf, a racetrack, and some 5,000 jobs to the town. Few were filled by Chester residents, a phenomenon some blamed on the city's poor schools.
The city had several years earlier placed last in a ranking of the state's 501 districts. In 2001, the poor condition of the city's schools led the state of Pennsylvania to hire the for-profit Edison Schools [2] to run the city's school district for three years. By 2005, some local charter schools had been closed, afterschool programs had diminished drastically in number and quality, and public schools were overcrowded, understaffed, and undersupplied. [3]
Although not often recognized as such, Chester is considered an important location in the development of rock and roll. Bill Haley & His Comets, the pioneering rock and roll band, was based in Chester and maintained their corporate headquarters in Chester into the 1960s. Many members of this band either came from Chester itself, or from small towns in the immediate area.

Geography

Chester is located at 39°50'50" North, 75°22'22" West (39.847112, -75.372672).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.6 km² (6.0 mi²). 12.6 km² (4.8 mi²) of it is land and 3.0 km² (1.2 mi²) of it (19.47%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 36,854 people, 12,814 households, and 8,124 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,933.9/km² (7,605.4/mi²). There were 14,976 housing units at an average density of 1,192.2/km² (3,090.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 18.94% White, 75.70% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.61% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 3.03% from other races, and 1.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.39% of the population.
There were 12,814 households out of which 32.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24.8% were married couples living together, 32.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.34.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.8% under the age of 18, 13.0% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $23,703, and the median income for a family was $29,436. Males had a median income of $29,528 versus $21,005 for females. The per capita income for the city was $9,052. About 22.8% of families and 27.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.9% of those under age 18 and 21.8% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

General Overview

In Chester, east-west streets are numbered, while north-south streets carry names. The main bisecting street, known as The Avenue of the States south of 9th Street and Edgmont Avenue north of it, is signed as both Pennsylvania Route 320 and Pennsylvania Route 352. North of Interstate 95, State Route 320 follows Providence Avenue. Between 1993 and 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) widened Pennsylvania Route 291 between the Chester-Trainer line and Concord Avenue from a two-lane road to a five lane (2 travel lanes in each direction with a center left-turn lane) configuration, while Route 291 ("Industrial Highway") between Concord Avenue and the Chester-Eddystone line was realigned in the city's business district. This allowed the bypassing of trucks around the Kimberly Clark (formerly Scott Paper) paper-processing facility, and allowing Route 291 to maintain at least four travel lanes between Philadelphia and major oil refineries in Marcus Hook.

Major Highways & Bridges

In addition to State Rt. 291, Chester is served by two Interstate Highways – Interstate 95 and Interstate 476, which meet in nearby Eddystone. I-95 was built in the 1960s and originally terminated just north of the Chester/Eddystone line at the present-day I-95/I-476 junction. It was extended north in the 1970s with the section around Philadelphia International Airport being completed in 1985. Three exits on I-95 allow access to Highland Avenue, Kerlin Street, and Rts. 320 & 352, with access to Widener University, via State Rt. 320. Of the three, only Kerlin Street is a partial exit. I-476, planned as an alternative route to State Rt. 320 since the 1920s and an original planned extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 1950s (as part of the 1,000-mile Turnpike network), was finally opened to traffic in 1992. An exit at MacDade Boulevard (which becomes 22nd Street in Chester) allows access to I-476 without having to use I-95.
Two federal highway routes, U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 322, also run through Chester. U.S. Rt. 13 enters Chester from Trainer on W. 4th Street, becomes part of Highland Avenue between W. 4th St. and W. 9th Street, and then continues on 9th Street to Morton Avenue. U.S. Rt. 13 follows Morton Ave. until it crosses Ridley Creek and becomes Chester Pike in Eddystone.
U.S. Rt. 322 enters Chester as a part of I-95 (merging on at Highland Avenue) and then departs I-95 at the Commodore Barry Bridge exit. Prior to the bridge's opening in 1974, U.S. Rt. 322 would cross the Delaware River on the Chester-Bridgeport Ferry, via Flower Street, causing major backups because of limited space on the ferries. With the expansion of State Rt. 291 and the redevelopment of the Chester Waterfront, both the Delaware River Port Authority and PennDOT will start construction of a new exit/entrance ramp from the bridge to Rt. 291, providing an alternate route to the Chester Waterfront.
In addition, talks have taken place for the reconstruction of U.S. Rt. 322 from a two-lane road to a four-lane road between Chester and U.S. Route 1 in Concordville, Pennsylvania, and the Highland Avenue exit. The road currently requires traffic to merge onto I-95 in the left lane and requires changing lanes three times to the Commodore Barry Bridge exit ramp in less than a mile.

Public Transportation

Chester is served by SEPTA (South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority) via seven bus routes, all of which either terminate at or pass through Chester Transportation Center, a transportation hub in the Business District that also serves as a stop on the SEPTA R2 Marcus Hook/Wilmington/Newark rail line using Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The R2 also makes a stop at the Highland Avenue station and, prior to 2003, also stopped at Lamokin Street at the junction of the NEC and the abandoned Penn Central Chester Creek Secondary Branch.

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools

The Chester-Upland School District serves Chester. Chester High School is the district's sole high school.

Colleges and universities

Widener University is in Chester.

Items of Interest

Chester is the birthplace of the hoagie sandwich [4].

Notable natives

Bo Ryan, head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team.
Kevin Jones, a Detroit Lions running back former Virginia Tech Football standout.
Jameer Nelson, an Orlando Magic guard and former St. Joseph's University basketball player.
Danny Murtaugh, former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates who guided the team to World Series titles in 1960 and 1971.
Alex North [born Isadore Soifer, 1910], accomplished composer responsible for the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire), the first truly modernist film score (Viva Zapata!), and the musical composition that later became "Unchained Melody."
Aaron Proctor | 2007 Pasadena, California Mayoral Candidate, political blogger, and professional wrestling promoter.
John Mobley, retired Denver Broncos Linebacker and former Kutztown University Football standout.

External links

★ City of Chester

★ J. Lewis Crozer Library - part of the Delaware County Library System

★ History of the City of Chester, PA

★ OldChesterPA.com - Chester History