Local History - Hopewell Valley - Hopewell Boro - Pennington Boro - Titusville & Washington Crossing For many years Pennington, originally known as Queenstown, consisted of nothing more than a few dwellings near the crossroads of Main Street and Delaware Avenue. During the Revolutionary War, British General Cornwallis was stationed here with as many as six-thousand British and Hessian soldiers. Their actions and reign of terror during that visit assured local support for the War for Independence. The village expanded outward from the crossroads and by 1844 it included two churches and sixty dwellings. Around that time two private schools, one male and one female, opened in town. At this point the village could only be reached by stagecoach. After the railroad began service in the 1870’s the village began to grow. Near the end of the century the Ketchem Farm was purchased and soon Eglantine and Franklin Avenue were carved out of it. In 1890, the town incorporated as a borough and within twenty years it was enlarged to the south. The population grew as families moved from the city into this quiet suburb. Burd Street, West Welling and Lanning Avenues were created from the Sked Farm on the west, and Curlis, East Welling and Maple Avenues were cut out of the Curlis Farm on the east. |