Old Center Square (Penn Square)

Before 1730, old center square, known as Hickory Town, held Indian wigwams, a hickory tree, and a spring. In 1730, Andrew and James Hamilton laid out Lancaster Townstead with an open square, streets crossing at right angles, and three plots for a courthouse, a jail, and a market area. In 1744, several hundred Indians from the six most powerful confederated tribes of the Middle Atlantic Indians signed the Treaty of Six Nations with colonial representatives from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia after meeting in the old courthouse in the square; in exchange for £1,200, blankets, guns, rum, and gold, they rescinded their rights to disputed land in Virginia and Maryland, renewed former treaties, and swore allegiance to the British against the French. On September 27, 1777, Sam Adams, John Adams, Charles Carroll, John Hancock, and Robert Morris passed through this location when Lancaster hosted the Continental Congress. Other visitors included George Washington in 1791, Andrew Jackson in 1819, Marquis de Lafayette in 1825, William Henry Harrison in 1836, Sam Houston in 1848, Zachary Taylor in 1849, Abraham Lincoln in 1861, Ulysses S. Grant in 1876, Woodrow Wilson in 1895, and John F. Kennedy in 1960. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the square reflected Lancaster's trade and personalities. It served as a public market until a market house was built on the northwest corner in 1757. Robert Fulton's father owned a tailor shop at the northeast corner, while Joseph Simon, an Indian trader, operated one of the largest trading stores in the colony in the southwest sector.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania · United States