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| A weekly look around the valley |
| Issue 6 - Retired roof goats and a grave two armies share |
| Hey. Week 44 around the valley. |
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What’s in this one |
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Hot picks · Oxford's Halloween parade Thursday, the grown-ups-only wine walk at Chaddsford Winery all weekend, and Día de los Muertos in Kennett on Halloween afternoon. |
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Field guide · Halloween is on a Saturday. Here are the trick-or-treat hours town by town, porch-light rules, and the extra hour Sunday. |
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The scrap · The Route 322 roof goats found a new job, one West Chester pole wants your money and your absence, and the annual Gobbler complaint is here. |
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What’s building · The three local questions on your Nov 3 ballot, explained plainly. Plus East Goshen planners review the county's notes on data-center rules tonight. |
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Makers · 60-plus juried makers at the Chester County Art Association all weekend, and a Halloween market in Phoenixville's Reeves Park Saturday. |
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Deep cut · Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse: the Quaker graveyard where two armies share one grave, now a Peace Garden. |
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Season · A Halloween-morning bird walk at Newlin Grist Mill, then 120-plus farms under one roof at Good Food Fest Sunday. |
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Plus a handwritten letter about home, mailed with a real stamp. |
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Hot picks |
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| This weekend’s best bets around here. |
| Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, so the whole week turns into Halloween. Oxford gets a parade Thursday night, the grown-ups get a wine walk all weekend, and Kennett spends Saturday afternoon on Día de los Muertos before anybody rings a doorbell. |
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Kennett Square · Sat Oct 31 · 2-10pm
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Chadds Ford · Fri-Sun Oct 30-Nov 1 · $45 · 21+
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Oxford · Thu Oct 29 · 6:30pm · free
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Field guide |
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| One useful guide to living around here. |
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Downingtown · Elverson · Coatesville · East Bradford · Marshallton · West Chester · Phoenixville · Malvern
Halloween is on a Saturday for the first time since 2020. Nobody has school, nobody's racing home from work, and the busy borough blocks are going to be packed. I wanted the actual hours, so I went town by town. Where towns have posted hours, it's mostly 6 to 8pm. That's Downingtown, Elverson, and East Bradford, and Marshallton's fire company hands out treats from the Conservation Trust in that same window. The City of Coatesville starts early at 5. As of Tuesday, West Chester Borough and Phoenixville haven't posted 2026 hours (last year was 6 to 8 and 6 to 9). Plenty of townships never set hours at all, so the porch light makes the call. Sunset Saturday is right around 6. Malvern's Boo-Tique Bash on King Street runs 1 to 3 if your little ones want to be done early. Then the clocks fall back at 2am Sunday, so you get an extra hour to recover. The full guide has every town I could confirm, porch-light etiquette, and what changes Sunday.
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The scrap |
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| The best stuff you missed in the area’s social media world. |
| The best stuff you missed around here on social this week. Short takes. |
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What’s building |
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| What’s going up, getting paused, or getting fought over. |
| Election Day is next Tuesday, and three towns around here have local questions on the ballot. Here's what each one changes, plainly. And tonight East Goshen planners go over the county's notes on their data-center rules. |
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Malvern · East Whiteland · Tredyffrin · Tue Nov 3 · polls 7am-8pm
Three local questions are on the ballot in Chester County this year, and none of them is a tax or a bond, so there's no dollar amount to fund anything. In Malvern, voters decide whether Borough Council shrinks from seven members to five starting in 2028. A yes makes it five, and a no keeps seven. In East Whiteland, the question is whether to elect two more supervisors. A yes takes the board from three to five, and a no keeps three. Tredyffrin's question bundles 40 Home Rule Charter amendments into one yes or no. They include raising supervisor pay from $1,500 to $3,000 a year, swapping the elected auditor for an appointed independent one, and dropping the elected tax collector article. A yes adopts all 40 together, and a no keeps the current charter. The official wording is on the county's list. Official referendum list
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East Goshen · 1580 Paoli Pike · tonight, Tue Oct 27 · 7pm
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| Correction · Last week we said East Goshen's Planning Commission would take up Aqua's PFAS tanks on Oct 27. It isn't on tonight's agenda. Planners already recommended approval back on Sept 22, and the supervisors' decision is expected later in November. |
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Makers |
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| Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting. |
| Halloween weekend is also a sneaky good weekend to knock out holiday gifts. West Chester has 60-plus juried makers indoors, and Phoenixville has a costume-friendly market in the park. |
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West Chester · Sat-Sun Oct 31-Nov 1 · Sat 10-4, Sun 11-4 · free
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Phoenixville · Sat Oct 31 · 11am-4pm · free
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| A Buzz partner |
| A letter about home, in your actual mailbox |
| Hometown Letters sends you a handwritten letter about your town once a month. A neighbor in the Brandywine area writes it, and it comes with a real stamp. Buzz readers pay $9.99 a month for the first three months, then $19.99 a month, or $199 for the year, and you can cancel anytime. If you don't love your first letter, you get your money back. |
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| Letters mail by the 15th. Gift subscriptions run 3, 6 or 12 months. |
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Deep cut |
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| One local history leftover worth knowing. |
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Birmingham Twp · Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse, 1245 Birmingham Rd
It's Halloween week, the time of year we think about the dead. A few miles south of West Chester there's a quiet Quaker graveyard where British and American soldiers have shared one grave since 1777. You don't need a ghost story for this one. Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse went up in stone in 1763, on ground where Quakers had worshipped since about 1690. On Sept 11, 1777, the Battle of Brandywine rolled right over it. The low burial-ground wall, built to keep cattle out of a cemetery, became the American first line, and the meetinghouse became a hospital. When the fighting was done, the dead of both armies went into the ground together inside the Quaker burial ground. After 9/11, members turned that common grave into a public Peace Garden, dedicated in 2005. People whose faith kept them out of the fight have tended a war grave for almost 250 years. That part gets me. The garden is open to the public, and Friends still meet there every Sunday at 10. It's an active place of worship, so go quietly. The full story is in the longer cut.
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Season |
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| What’s in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest. |
| Sunday is the first evening it's dark by 5. So spend Saturday morning outside with the birds, and spend your extra hour of sleep on 120 farm stands under one roof. |
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Kimberton · Sun Nov 1 · 11am-4pm · $10 at the door
More than 120 local farmers and food makers pack the Kimberton Fairgrounds at 762 Pike Springs Rd, off Route 113. It's all in the barn, a big tent, and two pavilions, so rain doesn't matter. There's a demo kitchen, food trucks, a pouring room, and farm animals for the kids. Kids under 12 are free, and $25 VIP gets you in at 10. Cell service is weak out there, so save your ticket to your phone ahead of time. Bring a cooler bag, because you're going to buy cheese. Good Food Fest
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Glen Mills · Sat Oct 31 · 8am · free
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| Brandywine Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings |
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West Chester, PA 19380
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