West Chester Historic District (Boundary Increase)

West Chester grew from a crossroads village at the Wilmington and Philadelphia roads, and became the Chester County seat after the courthouse was relocated there in 1784. This proposed district extends the original downtown district into surrounding residential and industrial areas, covering about 60 percent of the borough. It contains 4,028 resources, most of them contributing buildings dating from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Subdivisions of former farms in the early nineteenth century produced long narrow lots lined with brick rowhouses. After the West Chester Railroad opened in 1833, industries such as the Hoopes Brothers and Darlington Wheel Works and the Sharples Separator Works developed along the rail corridor. Worker housing in neighborhoods like Riggtown reflects the immigrant labor that sustained these industries. The district's significance rests on its intact collection of buildings that document this development, and the nomination extends the period of significance to 1954.