300 years later, the courthouse in bankrupt Chester has become one of the nation’s oldest public buildings

Through the years the bankrupt City of Chester has lost scores of businesses, whole blocks of houses, tens of thousands of jobs and residents, and even an opportunity to become Pennsylvania’s capital.

But through it all, like the city itself, the 300-year-old Chester Courthouse in the heart of downtown somehow has managed to weather the turbulence of economic and social storms. And the Georgian-style stone structure erected in 1724 during the reign of King George I has been oft-cited as the oldest public building still in use in the United States. That might even be true.

It has undergone significant cosmetic surgeries over time, but may we all look as good at age 300.

Structurally, the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, appears to be in decent shape. Through the years it has received some ad hoc maintenance from the Chester Historical Preservation Committee, said Carol Fireng, the group’s president.

As part of the tricentennial activities, on Friday it will host local schoolchildren at the annual Law Day event in the cloistered courtroom, which is arranged traditionally, with the judge’s bench flanked by the jury box, a spectators’ gallery in the rear, and jury room up a spiral staircase so typical of Philadelphia trinities.

The courthouse “stands as a tribute to the skilled craftsmen who erected it and symbolizes Chester City’s indomitable spirit,” said Stefan Roots, newly inaugurated mayor of the state’s oldest municipality and where William Penn first set boot. The courthouse anniversary, he said, constitutes a “golden opportunity” for Chester tourism.

Through the National Park Service’s largesse, the state has awarded the county $522,000 for the building’s restoration in conjunction with the nation’s 250th celebration in 2026. No timetable has been established for the completion of the renovations.

The park service affirms that the courthouse is “one of the oldest” surviving public buildings in the nation, said spokesperson Jordan Fifer, but withholds judgment on the question of whether it is the oldest.

It’s at least possible, said architectural historian Michael J. Emmons Jr., but in the court of common sense, in his view that would be a moot point.

“That building has witnessed centuries, with waves of humanity washing past its walls,” he said. “It has absorbed all of those stories and becomes an artifact and monument to our collective past, ... to three centuries of Chester history, Pennsylvania history, and American history.”

By historian Henry Ashmead’s account, the 1724 incarnation was the fifth courthouse in what was then a young municipality, incorporated in 1701, and the capital of Chester County. Ashmead recounted that the town had been Penn’s first choice to become capital of the entire territory; however, failing to reach an agreement with Chester’s biggest landowner, Penn decided to head upriver to some place he would call “Philadelphia.”

The newly built courthouse also was the venue for a tavern owned by one Neeles Laerson, who actually owned land on which the building was situated.

Stone was a common building material in the colonial era in Pennsylvania because it was so plentiful, said Emmons, a lecturer at Penn and assistant director of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design at the University of Delaware.

The building’s multiplane windows and separate entrances for men and women were typical of Quaker buildings in the region.

On July 8, 1776, the courthouse bell proclaimed the news that four days earlier and 10 miles upriver, the Continental Congress had declared independence. (The bell later was removed to a schoolhouse a block away. Its whereabouts today are unknown.)

A decade later, when the county seat was moved to a more central location, West Chester, the building briefly was owned privately. However, the following year, the area was divided into two counties; Chester became the seat of the newly created Delaware County, and the building resumed its career as a courthouse.

The Marquis de Lafayette, who as a general in the Continental Army was a key figure in the Revolution and led the forces in the Battle of Brandywine, helped Chester celebrate the 100th anniversary of the courthouse in 1824.

Chester, however, again would lose its stripes as a county seat when the Delco capital was moved to Media in 1851, coinciding with a period of profound changes for the courthouse — and Chester.

As Chester transformed from a sleepy village with a few hundred houses, to a milling boom town to a shipbuilding and industrial powerhouse, to a town confronting racial upheaval and stunning economic decline that would culminate in bankruptcy in 2022, the courthouse would assume various roles. It was once Chester’s city hall, home of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Delaware County Historical Society, and headquarters of Chester Community Improvement Project. Since 2019, it has been the staging area for Law Day activities.

Through it all, the exterior has maintained its stony face.

The building got a boost in 1920 when then-Gov. William C. Sproul, a Chester High School alumnus, put up some of his own money for significant renovations, said the preservation committee’s Fireng. Four years later, Sproul and other guests celebrated at a 100th-anniversary gala. The state paid for major renovations in the 1970s.

The structure largely has been protected from the elements by walls that Ed Orner, a Delaware County facilities management supervisor, estimates are 17 inches thick. It is more or less naturally winterized, said his colleague Scott McNeil.

The county is leasing the building from the state for $1 a year and facilities’ staff members have assumed responsibility for the improvements to come. The county announced the grant in August, but the work has not yet begun. A tour of the interior this week did reveal for some this-very-old-house repairs.

On the second floor a stain on the aging wooden floor betrayed that some water has been seeping through the roof. “They’ve been trying to figure this leak out,” said McNeill. Bucking up the windows likely will be a priority.

To the city, the renovations will be a huge deal, said Roots, and he is looking for the courthouse to help lure history-minded visitors. “It’s a chance to trace the footsteps of William Penn’s landing, traverse the paths George Washington once trod, explore the seminary where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pursued his studies, and pay respects at the resting places of ‘Buffalo Soldiers,’” deceased Black cavalry soldiers.

Emmons said Chester should make a big deal out of the anniversary. “These buildings are monuments not to just a single year ... instead they are monuments to centuries of our shared American experience.

“We must inherit the torch and keep it burning by preserving buildings like these.”