"The first school erected in 1770, the Joseph Hoskins School, was the earliest school house erected in the borough and township of Chester.

"In 1882, the second Joseph Hoskins school was constructed."

The following sketch on the naming of the school is from the Manual of the Public Schools of the City of Chester, PA, compiled from "standard authorities" and with the assistance of Henry Graham Ashmead, Esq.:

"The Hoskins building is named for Joseph Hoskins, who on Dec. 31, 1769, devised to trustees "for the use, benefit and behoof of all and every inhabitant of the said Borough and township of Chester for the building and erecting a school house or school houses or other edifices for the teaching and instructing and educating of youths therein," the piece of ground ever since occupied for school purposes at the southeast corner of Fifth and Welsh Streets.

"Joseph Hoskins was born at Chester, June 30, 1705, and died at the same place early in 1773, in the old house now known as the Porter mansion, where he had lived for over thirty years. His wife, whom he married in 1738, was Jane Penn, a noted minister in the Society of Friends, and a woman whose life had in it many elements of adventure and romance, which space forbids recounting here. He left no children, which accounts in part for his public gifts and bequests, but there is at the same time no doubt that he was one of the most public-spirited men this community has ever known, The school house built on the ground given by his generosity housed the first public school ever established in Chester."