Chester

Formed August 24, 1682 (2^nd county)

Chester County (534,408), West Chester (18,671)                

The tan brick Modern Justice Center was built in 2008 to augment a nicer 1846 structure.  There was a 1724 courthouse in Chester.  West Chester became the county seat in 1788.  The current courthouse is on High Street at Market Street.  United States Highway 22 is Market Street.  Thomas Ustick Walter is the designer.  The Justice Center was designed by Bernardson Haber Holloway Architects.  Chester County is an original county (2^nd county) organized on August 24, 1682.  It is named for Cheshire, England.  The county seat name is a geographical description and named for the county.  Chester County is the birthplace of 3 Pennsylvania governors, Thomas McKean, Samuel W. Pennypacker, and George H. Earle III. 

Chester County government consists of a treasurer, a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, and a clerk (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Thirteen Common Pleas Court Judges and Fifteen Magistrate Court Judges serve Chester County (judicial.)  The county is located in southeast Pennsylvania on the border with Delaware and Maryland.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is east and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is northwest of the county.  The county center is 13.3 miles West-Northwest of West Chester nearer Coatesville.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Berks, Montgomery, and Delaware counties and Delaware and Maryland and Lancaster County. 

The area of the county is 760 square miles.  It is 28 out of 67 in the state.  It ranks 7 out of 67 in population in the state.  It has a density of 703.2 persons per square mile making it 8 out of 67 in the state.  Chester County has 17.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 76 passes east to northwest through the county from Montgomery County to Berks County.  United States Highway 1 enters from Delaware County, southeast, and exits into Maryland.  United States Highway 30 comes from Montgomery County, east, and goes to Lancaster County, west.  United States Highway 202 enters from Montgomery County and terminates.  United States Highway 322 passes from Delaware County, southeast, to Lancaster County, west.  The county is a fat diagonal.  West Chester is in the eastern third of the county.  West Chester is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 3.5% of the county population.  This county is in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.

West Grove