About the Town
There seems to be two parts to Coatesville, at least the part that is touristy. First is the historic district running along the Lincoln Highway and the second part, the Lukens Historic District which runs along N. 1st Avenue. Both are the perfect place for a leisurely Saturday or Sunday afternoon stroll. There are lots of 19th century sites with wonderful architecture, each with its own story to tell. Interpretives and historical markers help to explain what the visitor is seeing.
Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,100 at the 2010 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia. Coatesville grew up around the Lukens Steel Company. Lukens was bought by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1997. In 2002, Bethlehem was bought by the then Ohio-based International Steel Group (ISG). Later, Mittal Steel bought ISG and then merged with Arcelor Steel to form the ArcelorMittal company. SOURCE
From the town's website: Coatesville’s location along the Brandywine River in the midst of the Chester Valley stimulated its growth and prosperity. The first settlement was an Indian village which had grown as a trading center and as a market for the fur trapping industry. Records indicate land holdings as early as 1714 by William Fleming, a native of Greenock, Scotland. Another early resident was Peter Bazillion, Indian fur trader and merchant, whose accomplishments were recognized with a market place on Oak Street by the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. SOURCE
Naturally something this historic, has an AGS entry:
COATESVILLE, 40.8 m. (381 alt., 14,582 pop.), in the shadow of South Mountain and divided by the wet branch of the Brandywine - here a black murky stream - has the worlds largest steel plate rolling mill. In normal times almost 4,000 workers are employed in the long blackened, shedlike structures lining the creek. In addition to the plate mill, the city has three metal-products plants and four textile mills. The section around the mills is crowded with small frame houses; the central business section is modern and attractive, as is the better residential section at the eastern edge of the community. Moses Coates settled here in 1717. --- Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State, 1940; page 441
About the Man
In 1787, Moses Coates (Born: November 4, 1746; Died: Aug 4, 1816, , Chester, PA at age 69), a prosperous farmer and the area’s first postmaster, purchased land which now comprises the center of the town. The "History of Chester Co., PA" states that "Moses Coates possessed considerable inventive genius, and towards the close of the last century he contrived and constructed a curious apple-paring machine, which was at once simple, convenient, and highly useful in domestic economy. With some slight modifications the instrument is still in popular use. He also invented a self-setting saw-mill, which attracted much notice at the time, but of its practical importance at the present day we are unable to speak. He likewise claimed the invention of a horse-rake (which he demonstrated to President Jefferson: C-1614), among other ingenious implements. That instrument, however, was afterwards greatly improved and brought nearly to perfection in the intellectual community of Kennet Square and vicinity, where agricultural machinery of various kinds is produced on an extensive scale; but as the inventors and machinists are yet living and flourishing, their memoirs must await the historic efforts of some future county Plutarch." (C-1601) He purchased a large tract of land that first was called Bridgetown (after his son-in-law, John Way's Hotel that had a sign of a Bridge) and then became Coatesville, PA when his son, Dr. Jesse Coates, named it in his father's honor. He built a sawmill, and a general store as parts of it's earliest constructions. The 14th post office in the county was opened in his store. He was the postmaster there and the town was named after him because of it. (C-1613, 1615) His sawmill was purchased by Isaac Pennock in 1810 who turned it into an Iron Mill run by his son-in-law, Dr. Lukens. It was called Brandywine Mills and then Lukens Rolling Mills. (C-1777). SOURCE