Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania!

While you can take a train into the heart of the community from the heart of Philadelphia, this Musings is not about radios or railroads.

Rather … in this encore of an earlier Musings, I want to “show and tell” you a little about this place which I consider “home” … to which I have just returned after spending 20 years in the Nation’s Capital region, to where my wife Alicia and I had moved after I was offered the opportunity to join the start-up crew of XM Satellite Radio in late 2000.

What makes Doylestown so special?

First of all, it has two outstanding museums which sit adjacent to each other … there’s the James A. Michener Art Museum, a world-class facility named after the famed author who was an orphan and grew up here under the care of a lady named Michener. Opening in 1988, the museum was carved out of the original Bucks County jail and named after “Doylestown’s most famous son” agreed to lend his name to the endeavor and donated the first $1 million toward its construction.

This is a photo of the photo of the late author standing by the sign in front of the James A. Michener Art Museum, which you’ll see just inside the Museum’s front door.

Across the street is the Mercer Museum, a six-story castle-like building constructed just over 100 years ago by one Henry Chapman Mercer, who — using his aunt’s wealth — desired a place to display his huge collection of what is best described as “pre-industrial-age implements” ranging from hand tools to horse-drawn vehicles.

Prior to the museum, Henry Mercer would first build Fonthill as his personal residence and as a showplace for his collection of Moravian tiles. Calling it a “Castle for the New World,” it was constructed entirely out of poured concrete. As for these colorful and unique tiles, they are still being made today in the Moravian Tile and Pottery Works, the third concrete structure built by Henry Mercer and located just a short distance from Fonthill.

Regarding the contents of the Mercer, on an upper level in a back corner is the preserved inside structure of the Merrick & Lennon General Store, which sat at the main intersection of Street Road and Bustleton Pike in Feasterville, which lies 15 miles south of Doylestown … where I spent my growing-up years. I must also note that my dear mother––the one who purchased the radio for me which is pictured in the heading of this website––worked behind the counter of this store for several years prior to and following World War Two. Pictured here is how the store looks today in the Mercer, not laid out quite as it was originally. The store also served as the village’s post office until at least the late 1940’s.

If you were to visit Highland Farms, a bed-and-breakfast located on the edge of town, you’d encounter the name of another famous American, Oscar Hammerstein II, who in the 1940’s and 50’s with Richard Rodgers wrote some of the most beloved Broadway musicals in history, with a major tie to Doylestown. It was in this home that the Hammerstein’s lived during the period when Oscar was writing such classics as South Pacific, Carousel, The Sound of Music and Oklahoma.

Are you beginning to get the drift of where I’m going when I ask “what do you think of when I inquire about the location or home of ‘south pacific,’ especially as related to the Broadway show?” Think, the story was written by James Michener as his first effort as an author when he still lived in Doylestown. The lyrics/libretto for the stage and screen production were written by Oscar Hammerstein II, at his home shown above! Therefore, isn’t “South Pacific’s” home actually Doylestown, Pennsylvania?

Two other historic attractions which bring folks to the area are the home of renowned writer Pearl Buck, situated “just up the road” near the village of Dublin …  and the famed Bucks County Playhouse, located in New Hope, an arts and antiques center to the east of Doylestown on the Delaware River.

The central portion of Bucks County, of which Doylestown is the county seat, is a popular weekend or day-trip getaway not only for those living in greater Philadelphia, but for residents of northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan region as well.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, if you can make it to this area which lies 30 miles due north of Philadelphia … I believe you’ll find it worth the trip!

Yes, while I have great memories of my years living in Montgomery County, Maryland, and of the people I got to know there . . . there’s no question that I’m happy to have returned to my beloved Bucks County––in case you haven’t yet recognized that fact!

Next time, I’ll have another “railroad” story … if I can find my notes––I have yet to see them, but there are more boxes still to be opened!

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