Essington, Pennsylvania

Chandler Field is a former military airfield located south of the central business district of Essington, a community in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated on the Delaware River, west of Philadelphia International Airport.

Philadelphia Seaplane Base (IATA: PSQ, FAA LID: 9N2) is a township-owned, public-use seaplane base located one nautical mile (1.85 km) south of the central business district of Essington, a community in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated on the Delaware River, west of Philadelphia International Airport. Originally, the facility operated during World War I as Chandler Field.

The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers in America. Nearby Province Island was the site of the confinement of the Christian Moravian Indians who were brought there under protective custody from Lancaster, PA in 1763 when their lives were threatened by the Paxton Boys. The facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the United States.

The Printzhof, located in Governor Printz Park in Essington, Pennsylvania, was the home of Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden. In 1643, Johan Printz moved his capital from Fort Christina (located in what is now Wilmington, Delaware) to Tinicum Island. At that time Fort Gothenburg was established in addition to Printz's dwelling and headquarters. Two years later a fire swept over the newly established settlement. The Printzhof was reconstructed more solidly and lavishly. The two-story log structure contained lumber sent from Sweden, glass windows and lavish draperies.Johan Björnsson Printz, his wife and younger children returned to Sweden during 1653. The Dutch West India Company subsequently captured the Swedish colony in 1655. Armegott Printz, the eldest daughter of Governor Printz, had married his successor, Lt. Johan Papegoja. She remained at The Printzhof even after the Dutch conquest. During 1662, she sold the estate for a partial down payment with the remainder due when she reached The Netherlands. When payment was refused, she returned to reclaim possession of her property. Ten years later in 1672, the Governor and Council ruled Armegott Printz should be in possession of the property. She subsequently sold the estate a second time and returned to Sweden where she died on November 25, 1695 at Läckö Castle.Today, the Printzhof's stone foundations are the only remains of the settlement. The Printzhof site is located near the intersection of Taylor Avenue and Second Street in Essington, Pennsylvania. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Little Tinicum Island Natural Area is an 80-acre (32 ha) protected area in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of William Penn State Forest.

Darby Creek (historically known as Church Creek or the Derby River) is a tributary of the Delaware River in Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties, in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is approximately 26 miles (42 km) long. The watershed of the creek has an area of 77.2 square miles (200 km2). It has twelve named direct tributaries, including Cobbs Creek, Little Darby Creek, Ithan Creek, and Muckinipattis Creek. The creek has a low level of water quality for most of its length. The lower Darby Creek area was deemed a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to contamination with dangerous chemicals from two landfills. Darby Creek flows through a narrow valley in its upper reaches and a tidal flat in its lower reaches. The creek is in the Piedmont Uplands and Atlantic Coastal Plain physiographic provinces. Major rock formations in the watershed include the Wissahickon Formation. Three small dams historically existed on the creek, but were removed in 2012. The watershed of the creek is largely developed, with roughly half a million people inhabiting it. Most of the watershed is in Delaware County, but some parts are in Chester County, Philadelphia County, and Montgomery County. The watershed is part of the Lower Delaware drainage basin. Historically, the Lenni Lenape people inhabited the area in the vicinity of Darby Creek. By the 17th century, the Dutch and Swedish had arrived in the area, followed some years later by the English. Numerous mills of various types were eventually built along the creek and several railroads traversed the watershed. In modern times, grants by various organizations have been awarded to improve the creek and its watershed. The Darby Creek Valley Association operates within the watershed. Part of the creek's length is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery, part is a Trout Stocked Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Various species of fish, including redbreast sunfish, eels, and trout, inhabit it. Several areas in the vicinity of the creek are listed on the Delaware County Natural Areas Inventory. These include the Darby Creek Mouth Mudflat, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, and the Ithan-Darby Creek Wetlands. A reach of the creek is navigable by canoe.

Tinicum Township, more popularly known as "Tinicum Island" or "The Island", is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,091 at the 2010 census, down from 4,353 at the 2000 census. Included within the township's boundaries are the communities of Essington and Lester. One of the island's notable aspects is the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, attracting visitors to the island year-round. The international terminal, the western end of the airfield, and runways 9L/27R and 9R/27L of Philadelphia International Airport are located in Tinicum Township.

The Morton Homestead is an historic, American homestead that is part of Morton Homestead State Park, which is located at 100 Lincoln Avenue in Prospect Park, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

The Morton Morton House, also known as the Morton Mortonson House and the Morton and Lydia Morton House, is an historic, American home that is located in Norwood, Delaware County, Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Muckinipattis Creek and Darby Creek. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Muckinipattis Creek or Muckinipates Creek is a 5.4-mile-long (8.7 km) creek which runs through Delaware County, Pennsylvania and enters Darby Creek just prior to the Delaware River. The creek is believed to begin with two branches, one in Springfield Township and the other on the southwest corner of Springfield Road and Bishop Avenue. The Muckinipattis then proceeds past the Primos-Secane swim club in Upper Darby Township. Further downstream it flows under the former A&P parking lot in Secane before forming the border of Darby and Ridley townships. It empties into Darby Creek between the shores of Montgomery Park in the borough of Folcroft and the historic Morton Morton House in Norwood. The name Muckinipates derives from a Lenape word meaning 'deep running water'. The Otter and Turtle tribes within the Lenni Lenape nation lived and hunted along the creek, and had a small village on what today is Montgomery Park in Folcroft.The Old Mill, or Old Mill Dam (known by locals as 'The Falls'), which today sits at the junction of Delmar Drive in Folcroft, South Avenue in Glenolden, and East Amosland in Norwood was built in 1775 by Thomas Shipley. The gristmill was popular among grain farmers from as far away as Delaware and New Jersey, who would operate barges called "one stickers" up the Muckinipattis to have their goods processed. The mill was at one time owned by John Morton, grandson of Morton Mortensen, and the deciding vote on the Declaration of Independence.The mill was sold and re-purposed a number of times. It was a bobbin factory when it finally burned down in February 1899. The confluence of Muckinipattis Creek with Darby Creek is next to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum.

Early in the 19th century, the Leiper Canal built in 1828–29 during the middle of the American canal age ran about 3 miles (5 km) along Crum Creek in Delaware County to its mouth in eastern Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley carrying its owner‘s quarried products to docks on the Delaware River tidewater until 1852.

The Leiper Railroad was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of 0.75 miles (1.21 km), constructed in 1810 after the quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. The quarry man's 'make-do' railroad was the continent's first chartered railway, first operational non-temporary railway, first well-documented railroad, and first constructed railroad also meant to be permanent. The credit of constructing the first permanent tramway in America may therefore be rightly given to Thomas Leiper. He was the owner of a fine quarry not far from Philadelphia, and was much concerned to find an easy mode of carrying stone to tide-water. That a railway would accomplish this end he seem to have had no doubt. To test the matter, and at the same time afford a public exhibition of the merits of tramways, he built a temporary track in the yard of the Bull's Head Tavern in Philadelphia. The tramway was some sixty feet long, had a grade of one inch and a half to the yard, and up it, to the amazement of the spectators, one horse used to draw a four-wheeled wagon loaded with a weight of ten thousand pounds. This was the summer of 1809. Before autumn laborers were at work building a railway from the quarry to the nearest landing, a distance of three quarters of a mile. In the spring of 1810 the road began to be used and continued in using during eighteen years. by John Bach McMaster, page 494, A History of the People of the United States, from the Revolution to the Civil War