Dr. Philip Jaisohn

Chester, PA · est. 1997

Seven years before William Penn set foot in his new colony, Quakers gathered here in 1675 for what is remembered as the first recorded meeting of Friends within present-day Pennsylvania. The host was a settler whose home became a landmark of the young community, and who would later welcome Penn himself when the proprietor arrived at Chester in 1682. These early meetings planted the seeds of the Quaker faith that would shape Pennsylvania's founding ideals.

Marple Township, PA · est. 1986

The oldest part of this house, a brick section, rose before 1708 on the 300-acre plantation Thomas Massey had acquired by 1696 in the young colony of Pennsylvania. Successive generations added to it in stone, and its rooms record the slow evolution of a rural homestead from William Penn's day into the nineteenth century. Deeded to Marple Township in 1964 and restored, it survives as a rare example of early Pennsylvania architecture.

Upland, PA · est. 1967

Caleb Pusey (1651–1727), an English-born Quaker lastmaker, purchased 250 acres from William Penn in 1681, the very year Penn received his charter for Pennsylvania. Serving as Penn's business agent, grist mill manager, and a colonial officeholder, Pusey was a trusted figure in the young colony—and his home is remembered as a place Penn himself visited. His house survives as a rare tangible link to Pennsylvania's founding generation.

Chester, PA · est. 1955

In 1653 Queen Christina of Sweden granted a tract along the Delaware River, from Marcus Hook to the Chester River, to Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, a native of Finland. Called "Finland," it marked the site of the first Finnish settlement in America, part of the short-lived New Sweden colony along the Delaware. Finnish and Swedish colonists here helped introduce the log cabin to the New World.