Lower Swedish Cabin

Darby, PA · est. 1952

Set aside in 1682 as William Penn's Quaker colony was taking root, the Darby Friends Burial Ground has received the dead of this community without interruption for well over three centuries. The land was donated by John Blunston, an English Quaker who founded Darby and rests here himself. The grounds also hold the grave of John Bartram, the largely self-taught colonial botanist whose plant collecting and famous garden near Philadelphia earned him fame on both sides of the Atlantic.

Clifton Heights, PA · est. 2019

A coiled steel spring that could "walk" down stairs became one of the twentieth century's most beloved toys — and it was made right here. Richard James stumbled onto the idea in 1943, his wife Betty gave it the name Slinky, and James Industries manufactured it in Clifton Heights for decades. When Richard walked away in 1960 and left a nearly bankrupt firm to Betty, she rebuilt it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, later earning a place in the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Upper Darby, PA · est. 1985

George Smith wore many hats—physician, judge, scientist, and state senator—settling at the Collenbrook estate in 1829. He helped found the Delaware County Institute of Science and wrote its first county history in 1862. As chairman of the Senate's Education Committee, he drafted the landmark 1836 law that created Pennsylvania's first public school code.

Upper Darby, PA · est. 1985

Built around 1684, Sellers Hall was the first permanent home in Upper Darby, raised by Samuel Sellers and his bride Anna Gibbons in the earliest days of Penn's colony. The family became famous for its bent toward mechanics and science across generations. One son, John Sellers, helped found the American Philosophical Society and in 1769 joined the celebrated observation of Venus crossing the face of the sun.