Village of Valley Forge
Schuylkill Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Village settled by the workers at iron forge begun in 1742. The forge and part of village were burned by the British army in 1777. Washington's quarters during the winter of 1777-78 were in Isaac Potts' house, a part of the original village.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Before it became hallowed ground, Valley Forge was a working village that grew up around an iron forge started in 1742. When the British marched through in 1777, they burned the forge and part of the town. That winter of 1777–78, George Washington made his headquarters in Isaac Potts' house here while the Continental Army endured its legendary encampment nearby.
Why it matters
Valley Forge became a symbol of American endurance, where a suffering, ragged army survived a brutal winter and emerged a disciplined force capable of winning independence.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Washington
- · Isaac Potts
Related events
- · Valley Forge encampment (1777-78)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Horse-Shoe Trail Eastern Terminus
Upper Merion Township, PA
The Horse-Shoe Trail was blazed in 1935 as a bridle-and-hiking path linking the hallowed ground of Valley Forge — where Washington's Continental Army endured the brutal winter of 1777–78 — to the Appalachian Trail on Stony Mountain, winding 121 miles through the rolling farmland and wooded ridges of southeastern Pennsylvania. This granite marker, set in 1972 by the Horse-Shoe Trail Club, honors Henry M. Woolman, one of the volunteers whose vision knit together a footpath still walked today. Trails like this one grew out of the early-twentieth-century outdoor movement, when clubs of enthusiasts carved recreational corridors across the American landscape.
Village of Valley Forge
Schuylkill Township, PA · est. 1960
The famous winter camp at Valley Forge takes its name from a real working community that began around an iron forge built in 1742. British troops torched the forge and part of the village in 1777. During the encampment of 1777–78, George Washington quartered in Isaac Potts' house, a surviving piece of that original settlement.
Anderson Family Burial Ground
Schuylkill Township, PA
This burial ground holds the Anderson family and was dedicated by Isaac Anderson, who served as a first lieutenant in the Chester County militia during the Revolution in 1779 and later represented Pennsylvania in Congress from 1805 to 1807. His life traced the arc from citizen-soldier of the Revolution to lawmaker of the early Republic.
Timothy Matlack
Lower Providence Township, PA · est. 1969
Timothy Matlack was a firebrand of the Revolution who helped shape Pennsylvania's new government while taking up arms for independence. He sat in the Continental Congress, served as a colonel of Philadelphia Associators at the Battle of Princeton, and helped found the Society of Free (or "Fighting") Quakers for those expelled from the pacifist Meeting for supporting the war. Long a fixture of Pennsylvania's revolutionary government, he was reinterred near this spot in 1905, decades after his death.