Created by the Kennett Heritage Center, this 13-stop self-guided walking tour traces the European settlement and expansion of Kennett Square from 1750 to the 1840s, ultimately illustrating the village’s contributions to the history of Pennsylvania and the United States. The tour is available via the PocketSights mobile app.
Stop One: Forebay Stone Barn / Clubhouse
The tour begins at the Kennett Heritage Center, housed in the former home of mechanic, inventor, author, and physician Dr. Isaac D. Johnson (1827-1911). In 1858, Johnson, Quaker abolitionist Ester Hayes, and Black abolitionist James H. Walker aided an injured freedom seeker—who later took the name Johnson Hayes Walker after settling in Boston—in Walker’s home. Johnson was among the many liberal Quakers in Chester County who supported abolition during the Antebellum period.
Stop Two: Kennel Complex
Before European settlers arrived, this area was part of Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. The name Kennett traces to Francis Smith, who settled in the area in 1686 and named the township after the Kennet River in his homeland of Wiltshire, England. By the early 18th century, the village had grown around this intersection, where the Chester-to-Nottingham and Lancaster-to-Wilmington roads met. In 1765, Joseph Musgrave opened a public house here — the first recorded use of the name “Kennett Square” — known as The Sign of King George III and later the Unicorn Inn. On September 10, 1777, Generals Howe, Cornwallis, and Knyphausen made the Unicorn their headquarters, finalizing battle plans here the night before the Battle of Brandywine. The original inn burned in 1875; the present Unicorn Block was built in 1877.
Stop Three: Springhouse / Lye House
The two-story stone house that formerly stood here was the birthplace of Kennett Square’s most celebrated citizen, the eminent 19th-century poet, author, and diplomat Bayard Taylor. Born in the house in 1825, Taylor went on to publish over forty books, including The Story of Kennett. After the house burned down in August 1878, Evan T. Swayne built the present building, and a bronze marker was added in 1925 to commemorate Taylor’s birthplace.
Stop Four: Collier / Forsythe House
On this site, Joseph Musgrave built a brick house in 1767, which John Taylor purchased in 1804 and expanded to eventually house a store, post office, and stagecoach. During the War of 1812, Brigadier General Robert Bloomfield briefly used it as his men marched from Philadelphia to Wilmington. The building grew steadily through the 1800s into the Kennett Hotel, until an electrical fire gutted it in 1952. The J.J. Newberry Company built the present building as a department store in 1955, which served the community for forty years.
Stop Five: Dairy Master’s Cottage and Barn
This building comprises a two-bay Penn Plan house built in 1832 and a four-bay Federal style house built in 1833. The two houses were combined in 1910 and converted into the Green Gate Tearoom in 1926, transitioning to the Green Gate Tavern after Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The Warner family then operated it as the Kennett Square Inn from 1976 until 2021. Today, Letty’s Tavern continues the building’s nearly century-long tradition of hospitality.
Stop Six: Samuel Painter House
In 1813, Quaker residents established a meetinghouse on this site. The original stone building was razed in 1873 for a larger brick structure, which stood until the late 1950s when the property was sold to the public library. The adjoining burial ground was eventually sold off in parcels, with all remains relocated to Old Kennett Meeting burial ground.
Stop Seven: James Painter House
Quaker teacher and builder Samuel Martin opened his first boarding school on this site around 1833, going on to establish the Kennett Square Female Academy in 1843 and Martin’s Academy in 1875. The school served as a hospital during the 1918 influenza epidemic before being razed in the early 1920s. The present building dates to around 1923.
Stop Eight: Charles Barton Keen Formal Garden
Samuel Martin built many of these modest two-bay Penn Plan houses in the late 1830s and 1840s. The row is a characteristic example of the vernacular architecture that defined early Kennett Square’s residential landscape.