Beginnings [1]
Paoli — Six accommodation trains are run daily to and from this station, over the Pennsylvania Railroad, for the convenience of residents on the line between it and Philadelphia. It is beautifully situated on the edge of the great Chester valley, and is a favorite resort for Philadelphians.
Paoli is an old settlement, and was a noted point on the road leading to Lancaster before the Revolutionary war. The time-honored tavern, which has always been its distinguishing feature, was named in honor of Pasquale di Paoli, the celebrated Corsican general, who was born in 1726, and at the age of twenty-nine was chosen general-in-chief of the Corsicans, then in revolt against the Genoese. He was successful as a leader, and soon rendered himself master of most of the island, organizing a government for it on the representative plan. When the island of Corsica was ceded to France he was continued in command, with the rank of lieutenant-general, but subsequently transferred his allegiance to England, and died near London, in 1807. Such a hero could not fail to become popular in the American colonies at the time they were preparing to achieve their own independence, and the name, localized here, appears at that period to have been very generally known, as the "Massacre of the Paoli" — one of the most disastrous and exasperating events of the Revolutionary war — occurred more than two miles from the tavern. This venerable hostelrie stands close by the station, and its substantial stone walls show but few traces of the hundred years that have rolled by since they were erected. Immediately in front of it passes the Lancaster turnpike, the first road of the kind made in America; and, if tradition can be credited, the bed of this highway is here upon the Indian trail which led from the Delaware to the Susquehanna. The tavern has been owned and kept by one family for near a century.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Lancaster Avenue West • Route 30