Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 33 miles (53 km) west of Philaelphia. Downingtown has been in existence since the early 1700s and boasts a number of historic buildings and structures. The town was originally named Milltown due to its number of mills along the Brandywine Creek, the first of which was founded by Thomas Moore. The Bicking family also had paper mills in the area, with Frederick Bicking from Winterburg, Germany, being the patriarch of the Bicking paper families. Around the time of the American Revolution, Milltown became more commonly known as Downing's Town because Thomas Downing, a 1717 Quaker immigrant from Bradninch, Devon, England, owned a number of those mills. The town's name officially became Downingtown in 1812. The east branch Brandywine Creek runs through the middle of the town. The town is located along what was originally the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, which was an early westward road in the wagon days. The Turnpike later became the Lincoln Highway, which was the first paved road to cross the nation from sea to sea. The famous Irish patriot and martyr Theobald Wolfe Tone briefly lived here. President Lincoln's funeral train passed through Downingtown. The 1958 movie, The Blob, was filmed in and around Downingtown .