Marshall Square Park, 200 East Marshall Street, West Chester, Chester County, PA

Honorable Mention Recipient - 2017 HALS Challenge: Documenting City or Town Parks
Significance: On March 13, 1848 the Burgesses of West Chester established Marshall Square as the Borough's first public park. It is significant to note that this pre-dates New York City's Central Park, established in 1853, by five years. The park was named to honor the late Humphry Marshall (1722-1801) who cultivated rare plants in the conservatory on his farm located in the neighboring Chester County village of Marshallton. Marshall was one of the earliest and most distinguished horticulturalists and botanists in the country at that time. He was a cousin of the renowned John Bartram, and was the author of Arbustrum Americanum, recognized as the first definitive book on native American trees and shrubs written by an American at that time. Marshall Square was recognized in the late nineteenth century as an arboretum having one of the best collections of trees and shrubs with 160 distinct species.

The park's original plan and plant list was reproduced in an article published in the "Pennsylvania Farm Journal" of January 1853. It is believed that much of the plan's proposed plantings were installed but it is not clear that the pathway network was ever constructed. Several other park plans were implemented over the years but the original plans for those designs no longer survive. The various park plan designs are well documented through numerous historical atlases and insurance maps of West Chester Borough as well as many historic photographs of the park.
Survey number: HALS PA-32
Building/structure dates: 1848 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1877-1878 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1883 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1886-1887 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1889 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1947 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1959 Subsequent Work