Early on, Darby was known as the "Gateway to the South," welcoming travelers of the new world and providing food and lodging at its hotels and taverns. As the Minquas Indian trail, now Main Street, changed from mud to logs to cobblestone to blacktop, the place called Darby became the industrial, financial, political, and transportation center of Delaware County. John Blunston's 1682 William Penn Grant settlement had its first school in 1683, established the second oldest library in the United States by 1743, and still has its Bunting Friendship Freedom House dating to 1699, which represents Darby's part in the Underground Railroad.
