Paoli Tourism Government Office

About West Chester

West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighboring townships. When calculated by mailing address, the population as of the 2010 U.S. Census was 108,696, which would make it the 10th largest city by mailing address in the state of Pennsylvania.Much of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania North Campus and the Chester County government are located within the borough. The center of town is located at the intersection of Market and High Streets. == History == The area was originally known as Turk's Head—after the inn of the same name located in what is now the center of the borough. West Chester has been the seat of government in Chester County since 1786 when the seat was moved from nearby Chester in what is now Delaware County. The borough was incorporated in 1799. In the heart of town is its courthouse, a classical revival building designed in the 1840s by Thomas U. Walter, one of the architects for the Capitol in Washington, D.C. In the 18th century West Chester was a center of clockmaking. Irish revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone briefly lived in West Chester during his exile.