Editing Easttown Township, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
The land that eventually became Easttown Township was once part of the [[Welsh Tract]], a large expanse of land promised by [[William Penn]] to a group of [[Welsh people|Welsh]] [[Quaker]] settlers in which they would be able to speak and conduct business in the [[Welsh language]]. Whilst the autonomous entity envisaged by some was never formed, it left its mark in the many Welsh place names that still exist, such as the [[census-designated place]] (CDP) [[Berwyn, Pennsylvania|Berwyn]] in Easttown and adjacent [[Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania|Tredyffrin Township]]. The township is believed to have been incorporated in 1704 since that is the earliest date it has been found to be referred to in official records. However, a delineated community of that name appears in [[Thomas Holme]]'s c. 1687 map.<ref>Holme, Thomas, ''A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pensilvania in America, Divided Into Countyes, Townships and Lotts'' (c. 1687).</ref>

Whilst the originators of the Welsh Tract were Quakers, the earliest settlers in the portion that became Easttown Township were mostly [[Anglicans]]. [[St. David's Episcopal Church (Radnor, Pennsylvania)|St. David's Episcopal Church]], just past the eastern edge of the township, was constructed in 1715 by Welsh Anglicans when the original church sent them a minister.

Revolutionary War leader [[Anthony Wayne]] was born and lived in [[Waynesborough]] house, in the western part of the township. He—or at least part of him—is buried at St. David's.<ref>Hugh T. Harrington and Lisa A. Ennis. "Mad" Anthony Wayne: His Body Did Not Rest in Peace. http://www.americanrevolution.org/wayne.html, citing ''History of Erie County, Pennsylvania'', vol. 1. pp. 211–212. Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago. 1884.</ref>

A [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] skirmish that occurred along a ridge in the center of the township was the only engagement of that war in the township. The name of the British commander, [[Banastre Tarleton]], was later given to a nearby mansion: Tarleton.<ref name="KenInq">{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/2002-03-31/news/25340951_1_henry-lee-signal-hill-british-presence|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140117023521/http://articles.philly.com/2002-03-31/news/25340951_1_henry-lee-signal-hill-british-presence|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 17, 2014|title=Battle in Chesco pitted notable foes Capt. Henry Lee of the Continental Army and British Maj. Banastre Tarleton faced off in 1778. Local History|work=philly-archives}}</ref>

Two sites in the township are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]: [[Waynesborough]] and [[Roughwood (Easttown Township, Pennsylvania)|Roughwood]]. The cluster of buildings that forms the village of Leopard, identified as a 'Significant Historic Cluster' in the Chester County Historic Sites Survey (1979–1982), is eligible for listing as well. In addition, the [[Waterloo Mills Historic District]] has been designated. Although [[St. David's Episcopal Church (Radnor, Pennsylvania)|St. David's Church]] is just over the line in Newtown Township, the church building and its graveyard (most of which is in Easttown) are listed together in the National Register.

Easttown, along with neighboring [[Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania|Tredyffrin Township]], was the site of the [[Berwyn School Fight]], a boycott and legal campaign by local Black families to resist attempts to segregate public schools by race.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Thorne |first=Roger D. |date=Winter 2005 |title=Segregation on the Upper Main Line: The "School Fight" of 1932–34 |url=https://www.tehistory.org/hqda/html/v42/v42n1p003.html |url-status=live |journal=History Quarterly |publisher=Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531015322/https://www.tehistory.org/hqda/html/v42/v42n1p003.html |archive-date=2024-05-31}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Canton |first=David |date=2008 |title=A Dress Rehearsal for the Modern Civil Rights Movement: Raymond Pace Alexander and the Berwyn, Pennsylvania, School Desegregation Case, 1932–1935 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27778832 |jstor=27778832|journal=[[Pennsylvania History (journal)|Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies]] |volume=75 |issue=2 |pages=260–284 |issn=0031-4528 }}</ref>

Easttown Township is said to have the most-litigated zoning law in Pennsylvania, largely as a result of its efforts to avoid being swallowed up by the expansion of the suburbs of [[Philadelphia]]. At least two major cases about minimum lot size were handed down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: ''Bilbar Construction''<ref>''Bilbar Construction Co. v. Easttown Twp.'', 393 Pa. 62, 141 A.2d 851 (1958).</ref> upheld the township's minimum lot sizes, while ''National Land and Investment Co.''<ref>''National Land and Investment Co. v. Easttown Twp. Bd. of Adjustment'', 419 Pa. 504, 215 A.2d 597 (1965).</ref> struck them down as 'exclusionary' seven years later. ''National Land'' further held that a municipality may utilize zoning measures that are substantially related to the protection and preservation of the municipality's proper interest in providing for the general welfare of its residents, but Easttown's zoning did not pass the test. Ironically, despite the developer-litigants' claimed interest in allowing poor people to live in Easttown, they built only houses that sold at well over the average value in Pennsylvania.