Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Chester (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Subaru Park, Upland Baptist Church, and Harrah's Philadelphia. Also, be sure to include Commodore Barry Bridge in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Chester (Pennsylvania).
Table of Contents
Subaru Park
Soccer-specific stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania. Subaru Park is a soccer-specific stadium located in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, next to the Commodore Barry Bridge on the waterfront along the Delaware River. The venue is home to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer.
Subaru Park was designed as an initial step for economic development on the waterfront, with additional plans calling for a riverwalk amidst other entertainment, retail, and residential projects. The stadium was constructed by T.N. Ward Company, which is based in Ardmore. The project is the result of combined commitments of $30 million from Delaware County and $47 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Subaru of America is the stadium's naming rights sponsor.[1]
Address: Chester, 1 Stadium Drive
Upland Baptist Church
Baptist church in Upland, Pennsylvania. Upland Baptist Church is a Baptist church built in 1851 in Upland Borough, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States.[2]
Harrah's Philadelphia
Casino in Chester, Pennsylvania. Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack is a harness racing track and casino on the Chester, Pennsylvania waterfront. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Caesars Entertainment.[3]
Address: Chester, 777 Harrah's Blvd
Commodore Barry Bridge
Cantilever bridge in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Commodore Barry Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Delaware River from Chester, Pennsylvania to Bridgeport, in Logan Township, New Jersey. It is named after the American Revolutionary War hero and Philadelphia resident John Barry.
Along with the Betsy Ross Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge, the Commodore Barry Bridge is one of the four toll bridges connecting the metropolitan Philadelphia region with southern New Jersey owned by the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA). Originally designed to connect with a now-cancelled freeway, the limited-access bridge has recently been retrofitted to better serve the local area. Between 2007 and 2011, both the DRPA and the PennDOT, in conjunction with the Chester Redevelopment Authority, built a pair of entrance-exit ramps that allowed motorists, primarily heavy truck traffic, to access the Chester Waterfront, via Pennsylvania Route 291 and Flower Street (via West 9th Street (U.S. Route 13)) from I-95. Other improvements, such as deck joint replacement, concrete patching (on the approaches), and other safety and engineering improvements are either ongoing or have been completed.
The bridge replaced the Chester–Bridgeport Ferry, a ferry service that from July 1, 1930 to February 1, 1974, was the sole means of crossing the Delaware River from Delaware County, Pennsylvania to Gloucester County, New Jersey. The Chester side of the ferry service experienced the Wade Dump fire and SuperFund cleanup, and has since become the city-owned Barry Bridge Park with the adjacent Subaru Park (home of the Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union franchise) being opened in 2010.[4]
Asbury AME Church
Asbury AME Church is an African Methodist Episcopal Church founded in 1845 in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the second African Methodist Episcopal church founded in Chester behind the Union African Methodist Church in 1832. Asbury AME Church is located at 1712 Providence Avenue and is an active worship center.[5]
Address: 1712 Providence Avenue, Chester
Eddystone
Populated place in Pennsylvania. Eddystone is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,410 at the 2010 census.[6]
Port of Chester
The Port of Chester is an American port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Centered around Chester it ranges into Marcus Hook to the south and Eddystone to the north. It is part of the Delaware Valley port complex and lies between the Port of Wilmington and the Port of Philadelphia. Traditionally, shipbuilding and later automobile assembly were the mainstays of the port. It has since given way to other manufacturing and recreational activities, with Penn Terminals the only traditional maritime facility.[7]
Caleb Pusey House
Museum in Upland, Pennsylvania. The Caleb Pusey House, built in 1683 in Upland, Pennsylvania, is the second oldest English house in Pennsylvania open to the public. Built in a vernacular English yeoman's style, it is the only remaining house where William Penn is known to have visited. It stood on 100 acres near Chester Creek which Penn granted Pusey, a plantation which the latter named "Landing Ford". Since the 1950s, the building and grounds have been owned by the Friends of the Caleb Pusey House, Inc. The house was restored and the property is operated as a historic house museum.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.[8]
Address: 15 Race St, 19015 Upland
Chester Rural Cemetery
Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania. Chester Rural Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery founded in March 1863 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of the first burials were Civil War soldiers, both Union and Confederate, who died at the government hospital located at the nearby building which became the Crozer Theological Seminary.
The cemetery is landscaped and had a large lake that was drained in the 1950s. It covers 36 acres and contains approximately 31,000 graves. Two monuments in the cemetery have been documented by the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System: the statue "Sorrow" by Samuel Murray atop the Alfred O. Deshong memorial, and the Civil War Memorial, by Martin Milmore.
On April 13, 1917, 55 unidentified victims of the Eddystone Explosion at the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation were buried in a mass grave at the Chester Rural Cemetery. An estimated 12,000 people attended the funeral service.[9]
William Penn Landing Site
Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. The monument at the William Penn Landing Site in Chester, Pennsylvania marks the spot of the first landing of William Penn on the territory of Pennsylvania, on October 28 or 29, 1682. Penn, the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, landed in the only town in the province, then known as Upland.
The monument at the site was designed by John Struthers, erected on November 8 and dedicated November 9, 1882 (N.S.) The landing site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.[10]
Crozer Theological Seminary
The Crozer Theological Seminary was a multi-denominational seminary located in Upland, Pennsylvania. The school succeeded a Normal School established at the site in 1858 by the wealthy textile manufacturer John Price Crozer. The Old Main building was used as a hospital during the American Civil War. The seminary served as an American Baptist Church school, training seminarians for entry into the Baptist ministry from 1869 to 1970.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.
In 1970, the seminary merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary, forming the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York and the Old Main building was subsequently used as office space by Crozer Hospital (now part of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.) The Old Main building is a three-story, "F"-shaped, stucco coated stone building with three pavilions connected by a corridor with flanking rooms. Each of the pavilions is topped by a gable roof and cupola, the largest cupola being on the central pavilion. The seminary's grounds are now the Crozer Arboretum.
The Old Main building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[11]