Chester County Pennsylvania

American Historic Small-Town Itineraries

Chester County William Penn established Chester County in 1682 as one of the first three counties in Pennsylvania; West Chester is the county seat. Other historic towns in Chester County include Kennett Square, Oxford and Phoenixville. Each has its own unique agricultural, revolutionary and industrial histories. These Main Streets of the Brandywine Valley are treasures of a time gone by with lovely tree-lined streets filled with restaurants, shops, galleries, markets, festivals and more.

West Chester nestled in the heart of the Brandywine Valley, West Chester is a picturesque and historic community that offers small-town charm with a cosmopolitan flair. Their downtown boasts 83 shops and 59 restaurants. The Chester County Historical Society is a history museum which tells the American story from a local perspective. West Chester's Main Streets offer a host of diverse shops and galleries. Specialty shops featuring imported olive oils, fine handmade chocolates, cigars and skate and surf equipment. The West Chester railroad, one of the oldest in America, offers a 90-minute train excursion through the beautiful Chester Creek Valley.

Kennett Square the town was originally called Kennet Square, with the name "Kennet", England, and "Square" coming from the original William Penn one square mile land grant. General Sir William Howe marched through Kennett to the Battle of Brandywine during the American Revolution. Kennett is famous for being the mushroom capital of the world; over 60 percent of the nation's mushroom crop is from this region. This small-town main street is filled with an eco-boutique, a rare book store, quilts, antiques and a spa. A walk down Kennett's State Street is also a culinary adventure.

Oxford on the way stop to view the historic covered bridges that surround the countryside. Then, stroll down Oxford's Main Street where Amish buggy's share the road, a vibrant art alliance hosts exhibits, shows and events, farmers markets offer local foods and wares, and charming coffee and tea shops.

Phoenixville like many American towns and cities, Phoenixville owes its growth to its waterways. The Phoenix Company Foundry, built in 1882, is home to the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, a historic gateway to northern Chester County that provides information about places of interest to visit throughout the region. Originally called Manavon, Phoenixville was settled in 1732. In its industrial heyday early in the twentieth century, it was an important manufacturing center and it was the site of great iron and steel mills, boiler works, silk mill, underwear and hosiery factories, a match factory, and Etruscan majolica pottery. The Iron Hill Brewery is a great gathering spot on Bridge Street, Phoenixville's main drag; it specializes in handcrafted beer and creative cuisine. Charming shops line the main street.

The Brandywine Valley wind your way along the banks of the Brandywine River through horse country and rich farmland. The rolling hills and verdant pastures along the Brandywine Valley Byway form a lovely and dramatic backdrop including Longwood Gardens, a stunning horticultural display set on the more than 1,000 aces of the former du Pont estate and the Brandywine River Museum, housed in a 19^thcentury gristmill. Its unparalleled collection of works by three generations of Wyeth’s American illustration, still-life, and landscape paintings make it a mecca for art lovers from all over the world.

Brandywine Valley Wine Trails beautiful estate vineyards in the rolling hills of Chester County, charming tasting rooms and barrel-aging cellars filled with premium wines that showcase a unique terroir. Spanning scenic southeastern Pennsylvania between historic Philadelphia and the Amish countryside outside Lancaster, the four wineries of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail are located within an easy drive of one another and are open year-round. Pennsylvania's climate and terrain provide some of the best growing conditions on the east coast, allowing Brandywine Valley to be one of the state’s premier wine regions. Brandywine Valley's bucolic countryside is home to many fine wineries. Make a stop at Chadds Ford Winery, the largest wine producer in the state or visit any of the unique, family farmed wineries along the Brandywine Artisan Wine Trail.

Historic Small-Town Travel Experiences in Chester County Pennsylvania

The Bozeman Brewery Historic District

Julius Lehrkind came to Bozeman in 1895, bought out the local Spieth and Krug brewery, and carried on the Bozeman Brewery name and business in the large new brewery he built in the northeastern corner of the city, a sparsely developed area located adjacent to the Northern Pacific Railroad facilities. His German heritage likely influenced his decision to locate the family home adjacent to his brewery, rather than in the rapidly developing residential districts on the south side. In the tradition of his native country, Lehrkind brought numerous members of his family into the business; the small, residential, family compound grew adjacent to the brewery between 1897 and 1912.

The Genuine Lager Bozeman Brewery contributed to technological developments in the beer making industry. During the 1860s, lager breweries surpassed ale breweries in both number and production in the United States, With the introduction of mechanical refrigeration during the 1880s, lager brewery architecture took on its characteristic appearance. Typical of the period construction, enormous refrigeration rooms with cork-lined walls were constructed within the Bozeman Brewery building. Beer would be aged in the refrigeration rooms for 6 months. At full production, it turned out 40,000 barrels of beer annually. The malting plant where barley was treated prior to brewing had a 3 million-pound capacity.

Barley became an important crop in the Gallatin Valley by the 1890s

The historic district is composed of five historic buildings that are directly associated with the Julius Lehrkind family and the family-owned and -operated Bozeman Brewery business. The remains of the brewery, a four-story brick structure, stand at the north end of the district. Across the street is the one-story, brick bottling plant. To the south of the two industrial buildings is the Lehrkind family compound, consisting of the Queen Anne style Julius Lehrkind House, and two modest houses built a decade later.

The district is located in the northeastern corner of the city near the Northern Pacific Railroad depot

The Bozeman Brewery building, built in 1895, was the largest building in Bozeman until the construction of the Montana State University Field House in 1957. The present facade of the brewery building is asymmetrical and consists of an off-center entrance bay with three flanking, vertically fenestrated divisions to the south and five un-fenestrated divisions to the north. The sand improved drainage may have acted to cushion the building from the reverberations of the 1959 earthquake. Three water wells were dug beneath the brewery, one to a depth of 200 feet. Approximately 12,000 square feet of the brewery building was devoted to refrigeration rooms. The floors and walls of the refrigeration rooms have cork sandwiched between layers of concrete. The roof is flat and has four, large skylights.

The Julius Lehrkind House is a two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne residence; built in 1898, forms the central focus of the district today. This well preserved, large, irregular plan, brick house responds to its corner lot location with a wrap-around porch set at the base of an octagonal corner turret and a corner, etched glass front entrance. The porch has arched wooden detailing and a decorative balustrade. The combination gable roof is covered with cedar shingles and features gable end decorative detailing in wood and a second story porchette with a gothic arch on one side and a Roman arch on the other.

The Henpy Lehrkind House dates from 1908; is a one-and-one-half- story, clapboard-sided residence of an irregular plan with a cut-away corner entry. The two-bay facade is asymmetrical and consists of an offset, glass-pane front entrance. Windows are one-over-one double hung units and there is a bay ^indow on the front facade. The combination gambrel-hipped-gable roof is covered with brown asphalt shingles and features a hip- roofed dormer on the north elevation.

The Edwin Lehrkind House was constructed in 1912. This one- and-one-half-story, gable-front, Bungalow style residence has a rectangular plan with a recessed stone porch across the front. The frame construction is finished with narrow reveal bevel siding to the window sill level, and alternating rows of wide and narrow reveal shingles above. Windows are one-over-one double hung units and the roof is covered with cedar shingles.

During Prohibition, the family diverted their energies to the soft drink business with a one-story, brick bottling plant constructed in 1925. This commercial structure has an irregular plan with a diagonal corner entrance. The buildings included within the Bozeman Brewery Historic District retain a high degree of historic architectural integrity, except the Brewery building itself, which has been reduced in size by the demolition of the eastern three bays and compromised by the construction of a two-story, concrete masonry unit addition in 1948. The brewery nevertheless retains sufficient historic architectural integrity to accurately recall its early function and remains an important, integral component of the historic district.

The six residential and industrial buildings that compose this small historic district stand as a cohesive group that serve to reflect art important aspect of Bozeman 's historical development, industrial, social, and ethnic history.

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