About Kennett Square, PA

Kennett Square is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Kennett Square had a population of 5,943.Kennett Square is located in the Delaware Valley and considered a suburb of both Philadelphia, the nation's sixth largest city as of 2020, and Wilmington, Delaware. The local high school is Kennett High School. The corporate headquarters of Genesis HealthCare, which administers elderly care facilities, is based in Kennett Square. The borough is sometimes referred to as the "Mushroom Capital of the World" because mushroom farming in the region produces over 500 million pounds of mushrooms a year, representing half of the nation's mushroom crop production. To celebrate this heritage, Kennett Square holds an annual Mushroom Festival, where the town and its businesses hold a parade, mushroom farm tours, and sells food and other goods. == History == The area to become known as Kennett Square was originally inhabited by the Lenape Native American tribe. Once colonized, the town was named Kennet Square, a reference to Kennett, Cambridgeshire in England with "Square" coming from the original land grant from William Penn, which included one square mile. In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Sir William Howe, a British Army general led troops through Kennett Square on their way to the Battle of Brandywine. In the 19th century, the borough played an instrumental role in the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves escape the South for freedom.