Kimberton Village Historic District

Kimberton Village is a crossroads settlement in Pikeland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, made up of three surviving buildings. The tavern, a white stucco-over-stone structure, was built by George Chrisman, probably after 1750, and was licensed in 1771 as a tavern called the Sign of the Bear. During the Revolution it was a resting place for armies moving between Valley Forge and an army hospital. The grist mill, of random fieldstone with a datestone reading 1796, was also built by Chrisman. The boarding school grew from a first phase possibly built in 1787. Under Quaker schoolmaster Emmor Kimber, from 1817, it became known for a liberal atmosphere, open to students of all religious denominations and drawing pupils from as far as the West Indies. Kimber was also an antislavery figure, and his daughter Abigail later attended the 1840 London anti-slavery convention.