Concord Township

Concord Township municipal offices are located at 689 Smithbridge Road, Glen Mills, PA 19342; phone: 610-459-8911.

Beginnings

Concord Township, the largest municipal division in the county of Delaware, is first mentioned at the court "held at Chester, for the County of Chester, on the 27th of the 4th month, called June, 1683," at which session John Mendenhall was appointed constable for "Concord liberty." The name it bears is believed to have been bestowed because of the harmonious feelings which in early times prevailed among the settlers there. The township was laid out originally in a rectangular form, and a road exactly in the centre (called Concord Street) ran from Bethel, on the south, to Thornbury, on the north, dividing it in halves. This street, laid out in 1682, appears never to have been opened to public travel. The southwestern end of Concord, which intrudes into Birmingham, rendering the boundary-lines of that township the most irregular in the county, resulted from the fact that the lines of the manor of Rockland, in New Castle County, ran along the western boundary of Concord, and, after the division of Pennsylvania and Delaware, the Rockland manor lands were patented to settlers who, doubtless, selected and were annexed to the township in which they wished their lands located. This idea is inferentially established by the fact that no land, either in Concord or Birmingham townships, within the manor was patented previous to 1701, in which year Penn authorized the division between Pennsylvania and the three lower counties - the present State of Delaware - to be made. That part of the Rockland manor which is now in Concord was patented by four persons. George Lee, Dec. 23, 1701, had surveyed to him two hundred acres bordering on Bethel to the Concord line. Nathaniel Newlin received two patents, June 2, 1702, for six hundred acres, - one of two hundred and the other of four hundred acres, - beginning at the eastern boundary of the original township and extending to the present western line of Concord. His patents were located on the north of Lee's tract, and included almost all the lands between parallel lines, except one hundred and thirty and a half acres, which were surveyed to Francis Chads, April 9, 1702. This tract began a short distance west of Elam, and ran eastward to the original township-line. The irregular piece of land, which juts to a point almost northwest into Birmingham, was patented to John Chevers, as two hundred acres, Oct. 28, 1708.

Source: History of Delaware County, Henry Graham Ashmead, 1884

The Four Villages of Concord

Concord Township encompasses four villages whose past tells the story of Pennsylvania and early America's development. Located at a vital transportation hub, the Township's development has always reflected major national and regional economic and demographic trends. Concordville, Elam, Markham and Ward, the four villages of Concord-(even many residents will not recognize all the names, but check a road map-there they are). The origins of these four settlements provide a snapshot of the early development of the region.

Concordville
Modern Concordville occupies the junction of two of the earliest public roads in the English colonies: Baltimore Pike or U.S. Route One, and Concord Road, laid out by William Penn's surveyors. The original path of Baltimore Pike lay roughly along the driveway that separates today's Concord Friends' Meetinghouse from "the Grange" building (today's senior center). The buildings on Concord Road at the intersection of Thornton Road and the Friend's driveway (old Baltimore Pike) constitute the Concordville National Register Historic District. Modern Concordville is larger, including houses and businesses along Route One, and extending further down Concord Road. Many of these buildings qualify for inclusion on the National Register. – more

Elam
Elam, on Smithbridge Road at Route 202, the next north-south road, and the link between the Lower Counties (Delaware) and the western Pa counties was home to a thriving tavern and inn industry as early as the mid 18th century.

Markham
The village of Markham, named for the first governor of the colony of Pennsylvania, lies in the valley of the West Branch of Chester Creek where the present Cheyney Road crosses Baltimore Pike. The village encompasses the Newlin Mill Historic District (Newlin Mill and its buildings, Markham Railroad Station and Post Office, and the William Trimble House and property), including the only operating Colonial mill remaining open to the public in the United States.

Ward
Ward covers the old Concord Creek bridge (also called Ward Run) at Concord Road, near the intersections of Creamery Road, Station Road and Spring Valley. The earliest Pennsylvania mushroom farms and canneries were established there, near the mill complex on Concord Road, and the product called "Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese" was first produced at the dairy on Creamery Road.

Source: Concord Township