Germantown began in 1683 when thirteen Mennonite and Quaker families from Krefeld, Germany, led by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a lawyer recruited by William Penn, settled here and made it the oldest German settlement in America. Germantown developed along a single road — today's Germantown Avenue — that ran from Philadelphia north into the countryside, and by the eighteenth century it was a prosperous community of German craftspeople known for their linen weaving and printing. On October 4, 1777, the Battle of Germantown was fought in the fog along these streets, when George Washington launched an ambitious assault on the British forces occupying Philadelphia and holding Germantown.
The battle plan was brilliant but the fog disastrous: the Continental forces became disoriented, fired on each other, and were forced to retreat. Washington's willingness to attack after the fall of Philadelphia nevertheless impressed French observers and helped persuade France to enter the war on the American side. The Cliveden estate, the Chew family mansion that the British used as a fortress during the battle and which Washington's artillery failed to reduce, still stands on Germantown Avenue and is open to visitors.