Brandywine Buzz

A weekly look around the valley

Issue 7 - Racing beds and the boulders that got Hannah Freeman wrong

Hey. Week 45 around the valley.

What’s in this one

1

Hot picks · Beds race down Third Ave in Phoenixville Saturday, there are telescopes at the Helicopter Museum that night, and West Chester holds its Veterans Day parade Sunday.

2

Field guide · How to get a local Thanksgiving turkey, starting with the Chester County market pickups and the deadlines that sneak up.

3

The scrap · West Chester is Philly now, apparently. Plus the covered bridge two-by-two war and a spare customer service face.

4

What’s building · Downingtown takes up e-bikes on sidewalks Wednesday, West Goshen keeps rewriting its zoning Thursday, and Newlin weighs a fire and EMS tax bump Monday.

5

Makers · West Whiteland's holiday craft fair moves indoors to Church Farm School on Saturday.

6

Deep cut · Hannah Freeman, the Lenape woman on three Brandywine boulders, and why the label on them is wrong.

7

Season · Pie Fest Sunday in Berwyn, three weeks before you actually need a pie.

Hot picks

This weekend’s best bets around here.

The clocks fell back, so it's dark by 5 and you have to plan around the daylight now. Saturday, Phoenixville races beds down Third Ave. Sunday, West Chester walks its veterans down Gay Street a few days ahead of Veterans Day.

Phoenixville · Sat Nov 7 · 11am-2pm, races from noon · free to watch

Phoenixville Bed Races

Teams push decorated beds down Third Avenue at Reeves Park, four running and one riding. It's the 9th year, and the money goes to Ann's Heart and Good Samaritan Services. The fastest bed wins, and there's a separate prize for Best Bed Theme that you vote on at $1 a vote before noon. Want to race? It's $25 a racer. Street parking is free along 2nd Ave, Main and Starr. I'm voting for whichever team commits hardest to the costume. Bed Races

West Chester · Sun Nov 8 · 2pm · free

West Chester Veterans Day Parade

American Legion Post 134 steps off at 2 and heads down Gay Street, turns onto Church, and finishes with a ceremony at the Old Courthouse on High Street. Veterans Day itself is Wednesday, so Sunday is the town's chance to say thanks when everybody's off. Grab a spot at Church and High, where the parade turns and the ceremony is a few steps away. Bring a little flag and actually wave it. Downtown West Chester

Telescopes ready on the Helicopter Museum lawn.

West Chester · Sat Nov 7 · 6-8:30pm · $15 adults, $14 kids 2-12, plus fees

Family Astronomy Night at the American Helicopter Museum

Astrophysicist Dr. JoEllen McBride and the Chester County Astronomical Society set up telescopes at the museum, 1220 American Blvd, for the Amber Stuver Memorial Family Astronomy Night. It's for ages 3 and up, and the stargazing part needs clear skies. It gets dark at 5 now, so we might as well use it for something. Buy tickets online before you promise the kids. Helicopter Museum

Field guide

One useful guide to living around here.

Turkeys on a Chester County pasture by a stone bank barn.

West Chester · Kennett Square · Exton · Cochranville

How to get a local Thanksgiving turkey around here

Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov 26. That sounds far off until you call a farm and the birds are already spoken for. I wanted a local turkey this year, so I went through the order pages for the farms that bring birds to our markets and wrote down every date.

The easy way around here is a market pickup. Lindenhof Farm brings its birds to West Chester Growers Market on Sat Nov 21, Kennett Square Farmers Market on Mon Nov 23, and Eagleview in Exton and North Star Orchard in Cochranville on Tue Nov 24. Preorders close at noon Wed Nov 18, with a $30 deposit. Ordering from Linvilla in Delco instead? Call by noon Mon Nov 16.

White birds are cheaper per pound and give you more breast meat. Heritage birds cost almost double and taste richer. Going frozen instead? The USDA says to give it a day in the fridge for every 4 to 5 pounds, so a 20 pounder goes in by the weekend before. The full guide has prices, pickup hours, and a deadline list you can screenshot.

Read the field guide

The scrap

The best stuff you missed in the area’s social media world.

This week the internet found out where West Chester kids say they're from. Also, one covered bridge has more rules than the DMV.

A man in a number 23 Phila jersey answers where he is from, under the caption When you ask people where they are from

West Chester (skit filmed in New York) · Instagram reel

"Philly, born and raised." Which part?

He says Philly born and raised, then "West Chester." An hour outside the city? "Without traffic, yeah." Instagram

via @sayburm

A one-lane covered bridge with cars lined up two by two.

East Pikeland · Rapps Dam Rd covered bridge

One lane, one yield sign, a lot of rules

Rapps Dam's bridge has a law that isn't on any sign: two by two, maybe three. "No lollygagging #3." Reddit

via u/autobot161 on r/Phoenixville

A cashier holds a hand-drawn smiley face over his deadpan coworker

SOKO Bag Korean Fried Chicken & Beer

The spare customer service face

When one cashier can't fake a smile, his coworker just tapes a paper one over his face. Facebook

via SOKO Bag (@sokobag) on Facebook

What’s building

What’s going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.

Wednesday night Downingtown takes up e-bikes on sidewalks. Thursday, West Goshen keeps redrawing its whole zoning map, and there might be compost bins in it for you.

Downingtown Municipal Building, a stone building on Lancaster Ave

Downingtown · Borough Hall, 4 W. Lancaster Ave · Wed Nov 4 · 7pm

E-bikes off Downingtown's sidewalks?

Borough Council can vote Wednesday on Ordinance 2026-05. It would ban riding e-assist bikes on borough sidewalks, set a "duty of care" for people on other wheeled devices, and let the borough restrict them in designated park areas. The full ordinance text isn't posted online yet, so the details on fines and which spots are covered aren't public. Also on the agenda: a fire-code update that requires Knox key boxes on commercial and multifamily buildings, and a vote to advertise the 2027 preliminary budget. Sidewalk riders, this one's for you. Show up at 7 if you want a say. Agenda

Photo: Mr. Matté / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

West Chester Pike (PA 3) heading west in West Goshen Township

West Goshen · Township Building, 1025 Paoli Pike · Thu Nov 5 · 6pm

West Goshen's zoning rewrite, plus compost bins

West Goshen is rewriting its whole decades-old zoning code, and county planners say it cuts the township's zoning districts from 23 to 11. Thursday is a discussion to confirm changes, with no adoption vote. That needs a separate advertised hearing later. On the table: a West Chester Pike corridor with shops and offices on the first floor and apartments above, and map changes that include the old Quality Inn site. The part I'm into is a three-month compost pilot, with drop-off bins at the township complex and weekly pickup by Mother Compost, that could start in February. Banana peels, finally a civic issue. Agenda

Photo: Mr. Matté / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Newlin Township maintenance building behind a wide lawn

Newlin · Township Maintenance Facility, 1751 Embreeville Rd · Mon Nov 9 · 7:30pm

Newlin weighs a fire and EMS tax bump

Newlin holds a hearing Monday on raising its resident earned income tax from 0.5% to 0.6% for fire and EMS, about $75 more a year on a $75,000 income, and supervisors could adopt it that night. Legal notice

Photo: Mr. Matté / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Makers

Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.

Holiday gift shopping starts this weekend whether you're ready or not. Exton's township craft fair moved indoors this year, so the weather has no say.

Holiday Craft Fair, New Location! graphic with a red ornament and evergreen border

Exton · Sat Nov 7 · 10am-2pm · free admission, per listings

West Whiteland Holiday Craft Fair

The Friends of the Parks holiday fair has a new home this year: Church Farm School's Founders Pavilion at 1001 Lincoln Hwy, and it's indoors. Look for wreaths, jewelry, handbags, toys, clothing, and home goods, and it's a fundraiser for the township's Friends of the Parks. Listings put it at 70-plus vendors. Rain can't cancel it anymore, so no excuses. Knock out the teacher gifts before Thanksgiving even shows up. West Whiteland Township

Deep cut

One local history leftover worth knowing.

A fieldstone marker boulder in a Brandywine meadow.

Newlin Twp · Embreeville · Route 52 near Route 1 · Longwood Gardens

Hannah Freeman's markers

November is Native American Heritage Month, and around here one woman's name is on three boulders, a memorial at Longwood, and a road. Her name was Hannah Freeman. The old markers call her "the last of the Lenape." That label has a history of its own, and it was never true.

Hannah Freeman was born around 1730 into a Lenape family on the Brandywine. She made baskets and brooms, worked for Quaker farm families, and neighbors knew her as a healer. After the Paxton Boys massacred the Conestoga in 1763, her family fled to New Jersey for about seven years, then came home to a valley filling up with fences.

By the 1790s she was in her sixties and sick, and 34 neighbors signed on to share the cost of her care. In 1800 she entered the new county almshouse at Embreeville, and she died there in 1802. She had asked to be buried in an old Indian burial ground by the Brandywine. She became the first burial in the almshouse's potter's field instead.

The Longwood memorial still repeats the "last of" line. Historians point out how handy that label was for settling land claims, and Lenape people are still here. Two of her baskets survive in the Chester County History Center's collection, and you can still plant a bean that carries her name. That part gets me.

Read the deep cut

Season

What’s in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.

Thanksgiving is three weeks out, so this Sunday is pie practice. Berwyn's market is handing you the excuse.

Shoppers and white vendor tents at the Berwyn Farmers' Market on Bronze Plaza

Berwyn · Sun Nov 8 · 9am-noon · free admission

Pie Fest at the Berwyn Farmers' Market

The Berwyn Farmers' Market is calling this Sunday Pie Fest. It's at Bronze Plaza, 511 Old Lancaster Rd, next to Handel's. The market hasn't posted what Pie Fest includes, so show up hungry and keep your expectations loose. It runs rain or shine. While you're there, ask the bakers whether they take Thanksgiving orders. Call it research. Berwyn Farmers' Market

Brandywine Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings

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West Chester, PA 19380