West Chester Downtown Historic District

West Chester's downtown historic district covers about fifteen square blocks at the center of the Borough, built around the original 1784 town plan at Gay and High Streets. Its core includes the Chester County Courthouse of 1846 to 1849, designed by Thomas U. Walter, and the Smith-Sharpless House of 1789. Gay and Market Streets form two parallel main streets lined with about 400 structures, most of them three-story brick row buildings with Greek Revival and Italianate detailing. Earlier two-and-a-half-story Federal rowhouses survive along Gay Street, which was developed first. Extensions along High and Church Streets hold Greek Revival and Federal twins, institutional buildings, and offices. Notable later buildings include the Beaux Arts F&M Building of 1907 and the Art Deco Warner Theater of 1930. The district is regarded as an unusually intact record of the county seat's commercial and governmental development across more than a century.