The Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: 2024-2025
Last year saw the kickoff tour of a historic tour of 24 states that Lafayette visited between the years 1824 and 1825. The tour was organized by the American Friends of Lafayette, and locally organized by numerous Chester County residents, including author Bruce Mowday, who chaired the Lafayette Bicentennial Brandywine Committee and Randell Spackman, who hosted the 2024 and 2025 celebrations at his property, Thornbury Farm.
The photo collages shown here include the Chester County History Center’s “Grand Lafayette Ball,” and Thornbury Farm’s walking tours of the Brandywine Battlefield where 19-year-old Lafayette was wounded on September 11, 1777. Interpreter Michael Halbert (pictured with organizer Mark Slouf in the black & white photo) was one of several professional re-enactors who played the part of Lafayette during the Farewell Tour.
Two hundred years after Lafayette visited West Chester on July 26, 1825, members of the West Chester Historical Commission as well as volunteers with the county’s Town Tours & Village Walks, celebrated with guided tours to the spot where the Marquis reviewed a gathering of military troops at what is now Marshall Square Park.
The celebration continued at Borough Hall with a mock or “faux” dinner hosted by the Historical Commission. There, Nicole Scimone of the Borough Council presented an honorary citizenship to Lafayette while participants recited most of the original 25 toasts given in honor of Lafayette in 1825.
While the day did not have the kind of crowds Lafayette experienced – 10,000 spectators were said to have gathered in West Chester alone – nor was the “day spent as a holiday by a great part of the county,” as one 19th-century writer stated, the enthusiasm for celebrating Lafayette’s visit 200 years ago was seen in many of the historic re-enactments.
As the collage illustrates, the day ended with Lafayette waving to a group that stood outside the former home of the Chief Burgess, Ziba Pyle, at the northeast corner of Gay and Church. Lafayette spent the night there in 1825 before continuing his tour the next day in Lancaster County.
