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City of Chester
City
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Delaware
Area	6.0 sq mi (15.5 km²)
- land	1.8 sq mi (4.7 km²)
- water	1.2 sq mi (3.1 km²), 20%
Center
- coordinates	39°50′50″N 75°22′22″W / 39.84722, -75.37278Coordinates: 39°50′50″N 75°22′22″W / 39.84722, -75.37278
- elevation	69 ft (21 m)
Population	36,854 (2000)
Density	7,605.4 /sq mi (2,936.5 /km²)
Founded	1682
Mayor	Wendell N. Butler, Jr.
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Area code	610
Location of Chester in Delaware County
Location of Chester in Pennsylvania
Location of Pennsylvania in the United States
Website : http://www.chestercity.com

Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, population 36,854 at the 2000 census. Chester is situated on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware in the southeast corner of the state.

Contents 1 History 2 Economy 3 Geography 4 Demographics 5 Transportation 5.1 Highways & bridges 5.2 Public transportation 6 Education 6.1 Primary and secondary schools 6.1.1 Public schools 6.2 Colleges and universities 7 Notable natives 8 Notes 9 External links

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. The Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., later Pennsylvania Shipyard & Dry Dock Company, was located in Chester until it closed in 1990. Two ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Chester in honor of the city.

Chester is the birthplace of the hoagie sandwich [1].

Chester began losing its mainstay shipyard and automobile manufacturing jobs as early as the 1960s, causing the population to be halved in fifty years from 65,000 in 1950 to under 37,000 in 2000. Poverty and crime rose as the city declined. In 1995, the state designated Chester as a financially distressed municipality. Soon thereafter, the city's schools ranked last among the state's 501 districts, leading Pennsylvania education officials in 2001 to hire the for-profit Edison Schools to run the local school district for three years. ^[1] Even the site Penn's Landing, which marks William Penn's first landing in the Province, sold its naming rights to the waterfront maintenance corporation in Philadelphia, whose memorial now marks William Penn's first landing in that city.

When Chester became eligible for Pennsylvania's Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program, firms began to accept state and local tax breaks to invest in KOZ-designated areas of this southeastern Pennsylvania city. The Wharf at Rivertown, a $60 million renovation of the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO)'s 396,000 sq ft generating plant, which was originally built in Chester in 1918, has returned the waterfront to the local residents, providing both recreational and office space for new local endeavors. ^{[2] [3]} AdminServer is an upstart insurance company that has drawn the market's attention. ^{[4] [5]} Sun Shipbuilding converted part of the shipyard to a smaller shipping concern and sold its interest, then sold off portions of the rest to new users, such as the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution Chester. Harrah's Casino and Racetrack built its facilities beginning in 2005, launching horse racing along the Delaware River in September 2006, and its racino in January 2007.

Chester borders on (clockwise from southwest to northeast) Trainer Borough, Upper Chichester Township, Chester Township, Upland Borough, Parkside Borough, Ridley Township, and Eddystone Borough. The city has a total area of 15.6 km² (6.0 mi²), including 12.6 km² (4.8 mi²) of land and 3.0 km² (1.2 mi²) (19.47%) of water, according to the United States Census Bureau.

As of the census^GR2 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

• Widener University is in Chester.
• Sleeper's College was a vocational school for "office and commercial training" founded in 1910.

Chester's most famous son may well be John Morton, who cast the deciding vote on the Declaration of Independence.^[6] 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 NBA's Orlando Magic and alumnus of St. Joseph's University, led the Chester High School Clippers to a PIAA State Championship in 2000.

Bill Haley & His Comets, the pioneering rock-and-roll band, was based in Chester and maintained their corporate headquarters there into the 1960s. Many of its members came from Chester or nearby towns.

Others include:

• Ron Bennington, host of XM Satellite Radio program "The Ron and Fez Show"
• Hubert R. Harmon, first superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy.
• Kevin Jones, a Detroit Lions running back and former Virginia Tech football standout.
• Joe Klecko, retired New York Jets lineman and former Temple University football player; father of Dan Klecko of the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts.
• John Linehan, former Providence College guard and NCAA men's basketball steals leader as of 2002.
• Kevin Michael, a soul singer.
• John Mobley, retired Denver Broncos linebacker and former Kutztown University football standout.
• Sylvanus Morley, archaeologist and Mayanist scholar
• Danny Murtaugh, former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates who guided the team to World Series titles in 1960 and 1971.
• Alex North, composer.
• John M. Paxton, Jr., a United States Marine Corps general officer.
• David Dixon Porter, a Civil War naval hero.
• Aaron Proctor, professional wrestling promoter and politician.
• Caleb Pusey, a friend and business partner of William Penn.
• Joe Pyne, radio and television talk show host
• James W. Reese, a U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient in World War II
• Bo Ryan, head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team.
• Brent Staples, an editorial writer for the New York Times.

• 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

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Delaware County, Pennsylvania
County seat: Media
Cities	Chester
Boroughs	Aldan | Brookhaven | Chester Heights | Clifton Heights | Collingdale | Colwyn | Darby | East Lansdowne | Eddystone | Folcroft | Glenolden | Lansdowne | Marcus Hook | Media | Millbourne | Morton | Norwood | Parkside | Prospect Park | Ridley Park | Rose Valley | Rutledge | Sharon Hill | Swarthmore | Trainer | Upland | Yeadon
Townships	Aston | Bethel | Chadds Ford | Chester | Concord | Darby | Edgmont | Haverford | Lower Chichester | Marple | Middletown | Nether Providence | Newtown | Radnor | Ridley | Springfield | Thornbury | Tinicum | Upper Chichester | Upper Darby | Upper Providence
CDPs	Ardmore | Boothwyn | Broomall | Drexel Hill | Folsom | Lima | Linwood | Village Green-Green Ridge | Woodlyn
Unincorporated Communities	Bortandale | Bowling Green | Cheyney | Elwyn | Garden City | Garnet Valley | Garrett Hill | Glen Mills | Glen Riddle | Gradyville | Haverford | Havertown | Lenni | Moylan | Pine Ridge | Radnor | Riddlewood | Rosemont | Rose Tree | Secane | South Media | St. Davids | Strafford | Villanova | Wallingford | Wawa | Wayne