The Baptist Church in the Great Valley
Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1711 by Welsh families, it is the second oldest Baptist church in the State and the mother of eight nearby congregations. The present building, the second, was erected in 1805.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1711, Welsh families who had crossed the Atlantic seeking room to worship freely gathered in the fertile Chester County countryside known as the Great Valley and organized a Baptist congregation. It became the second oldest Baptist church in Pennsylvania and, over time, the "mother" from which eight neighboring congregations grew. The present stone meetinghouse, the second on the site, was raised in 1805.
Why it matters
It reflects the Welsh migration and the flowering of dissenting Protestant faiths that Penn's colony of religious freedom made possible.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- American Bandstand13.9 mi away
- Discovery Center at East Park Reservoir14.0 mi away
- Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge14.1 mi away
- Philadelphia Zoo14.2 mi away
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. David's Church
Radnor Township, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1715 by Welsh Episcopalians who had come to Penn's colony in search of land and religious freedom, St. David's Church became one of the enduring landmarks of Pennsylvania's "Welsh Tract." Its weathered stones and quiet churchyard so moved Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that he immortalized the place in verse. The churchyard is also the final resting place of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the fiery Revolutionary War commander whose remains were carried here from Erie in 1809, years after his death.
Duffy's Cut Mass Grave
Willistown Township, PA · est. 2004
In August 1832, fifty-seven Irish immigrants, newly landed and desperate for work, were digging railroad line for a contractor named Duffy when cholera swept through their camp. Feared as carriers of disease and scorned as Irish Catholics, they were largely left to die, and their bodies were buried together in a hidden trench. The mass grave nearby holds them still.
Thomas Massey House
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.
Old Haverford Friends' Meeting
Haverford Township, PA · est. 1975
Quakers have gathered on this Haverford site since 1684, in the first years of William Penn's colony founded as a refuge for the persecuted. The oldest part of the present meetinghouse dates to 1700, built onto the original log structure where Penn himself worshipped in late 1699. Few places so directly connect to the founder of Pennsylvania and the Friends who shaped its tolerant beginnings.