By Jeffrey Marshall
1 of 12
2 of 12
3 of 12
4 of 12
5 of 12
6 of 12
7 of 12
8 of 12
9 of 12
10 of 12
11 of 12
12 of 12
Photo by B. Krist for GPTMC © Bob Krist/GPTMC No commercial use without written permission.
New Hope & Ivyland Railroad
New Hope & Ivyland Railroad takes passengers on a nine-mile, 50-minute scenic journey aboard one of the nation’s few remaining steam-powered engines.
Tourists stream into this small Bucks County borough daily to enjoy the architecture, the shops, the Playhouse, the galleries and the restaurants. New Hope has energy, vitality, a cache and a long and a fascinating history. In fact, to people across the country, New Hope is Bucks County. It symbolizes the beauty and history of Bucks County like no other place.
The village of New Hope grew up along the banks of the Delaware River where the Aquetong Creek flows into it. Like Bristol, Morrisville and Yardley the site had an early ferry and gristmill to stimulate growth. When Richard Heath received his patent in 1710 for two, 500-hundred acre tracts that were to become New Hope, one tract was called the “mill tract” and the other, the “ferry tract”.
By the 1750s the village boasted a ferry, inn, forge and grist, saw, fulling, rolling, and slitting mill. The York Road crossed the Delaware River here, and the site became an important point on a major transportation route. During the eighteenth century, the village was known by the names of the various ferry keepers. New Hope was Wells’ Ferry until to 1770, after which it was called Coryell’s Ferry. Numerous documents make reference to as Coryell’s Ferry during the Revolutionary period.
The ferry crossing the Delaware at this point was a critical factor in the town’s development. Ferries had to be licensed. John Wells was the first licensed ferryman and was there in 1715. At the conclusion of this term the sons of William Penn renewed it again, and he was to pay an annual rent of 40 shillings. John Wells’ will was dated July 16th, 1748, and he left his farm of 145 acres to William Kitchen, his probable son-in-law.
One of New Hope’s most historic early events was related to its ferry. After fleeing British troops and safely crossing the Delaware River to Pennsylvania in early December 1776, George Washington ordered his troops to secure all boats and spread out along the Delaware River. Continental troops guarded strategic points between New Hope and Yardley. New Jersey and Pennsylvania militia guarded the river from Yardley south to Dunk's Ferry below Bristol. The ferry became obsolete with the construction of the New Hope Bridge in 1814.
New Hope is considered to have come into its own industrially in 1784 when Benjamin Parry bought a grist mill, improved it, and added flaxseed oil and lumber mills. After a fire in 1790 Parry rebuilt the mills and called them the "New Hope” mills. Benjamin Parry's invention and patent for a method of drying grain allowed for shipping around the world.
Well established in the 18th century as a milling center, New Hope continued to flourish in the early to mid-19th century. A full variety of mills were located at this important juncture of Aquetong Creek, the Delaware River, the canal and Old York Road. In addition to Parry's grist and flouring mills, flaxseed oil mill and lumbering factory, was William Maris' Lepanto woolen and flax mills and William Sutton's New Hope Foundry and Tin and Sheet Iron Manufactory.
William Maris came to New Hope from Philadelphia. He had built a cotton mill, woolen mill, the Brick Hotel at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets [now a bank] and his own house called Cintra on the Old York Road.
We are fortunate that an old map of New Hope, made in 1798, survives and gives the names of all the owners of real estate at that time. The map shows a large community with 34 buildings including dwellings, barns, stores and mills. Soon thereafter, in 1805, the village received its first post office and became a “real town”.
New Hope was an important transportation hub. The Doylestown and New Hope Stage Line began in 1792. The "Swift and Sure Coach Company" traveled between Philadelphia and New Hope from 1805 to 1845 with five stops in Buckingham and Solebury Townships alone.
Perhaps one of the key factors in New Hope’s growth came with the construction of the Pennsylvania Canal. Connecting with the Lehigh Canal in Easton, the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal’s main purpose was to haul coal from Mauch Chunk to Bristol where it traveled by river to Philadelphia. In addition, canal boats carried such items as limestone, iron ore, pig iron, staves, rails, hay, straw, lumber and brick.
The Trenton Gazette carried an account of the village of New Hope and surrounding area as it was in December of 1870. It stated: “This village is one of the oldest on the Delaware, and at one time vied with Lambertville as a manufacturing place. But its younger neighbor has far outstripped it—New Hope having 1,260 inhabitants while Lambertville has some 4,800. New Hope is the residence of a number of wealthy people ... There is one church in New Hope, of the Methodist persuasion, and a small Friends’ meeting house, and these constitute all the church accommodations. There are two grain mills, one cotton manufactory, one flax mill, two large factories, all of which are run by an excellent water power from Ingham’s celebrated spring, about two miles distant.”
The canal system was quickly superseded by the railroad. The first line in Bucks County came in 1832 along the route from Philadelphia to Trenton. In 1856 the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company opened the line from Lansdale to Doylestown and, in 1857, the line through Telford and Quakertown. The railroad company from Philadelphia to New York passed through Newtown in 1872. In 1891 the railroad line to New Hope, now called the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad, was completed. The June 18, 1891 Intelligencer proclaimed that the New Hope station was “progressing very rapidly and in a few weeks New Hope will be supplied with this necessary adjunct to the comforts of railroad travel. There is the usual amount of criticism by the lookers on, as to the merits of the structure in its unfinished state; the opinion upon which these wiseacres mostly agree is that the building is too low.”
A decade after the railroad opened to New Hope the Trenton, New Hope & Lambertville Street Railway Company (chartered December 12, 1903) began construction of a line to New Hope where it crossed over the Delaware to Lambertville, New Jersey.
One cannot study the history of New Hope without quickly coming across the name of Coryell. He was, along with Benjamin Parry, William Maris and Joseph D. Murray, one of the leaders of the community. Mr. Coryell operated in a time when there was not the public desire for fastidiousness in the separation of public and private interest. Mr. Coryell did as much for Mr. Coryell as he did for New Hope. New Hope prospered as Coryell succeeded and Coryell prospered as New Hope flourished.
Historian W. W. H. Davis wrote: “In his day and generation New Hope had no more useful and enterprising citizen than the late Lewis S. Coryell.” (He died in 1865.) Lewis Coryell came from one of the area’s oldest and most prominent families. Emanuel Coryell was the first settler of Lambertville. In 1813, Lewis married Mary Vansant, of New Hope. He soon established himself in the lumber business in New Hope. Davis also wrote “He was a favorite of President Monroe, and a frequent guest at the White House while he occupied it.” … “Under Mr. Tyler’s administration he was the secret agent employed by the government to bring Texas into the Union”
Lewis Coryell served as both Superintendent of masonry and carpentry and principal Assistant Engineer for the canal in 1830 and 1831; the in August of the latter year he was relieved of this position, and named for engineer for the wing dam project alone. The wing dam not only provided water for the canal; but coincidentally provided water power for the Union Mills—owned, in part, by Lewis Coryell. Coryell also was a partner in the firm which received the bid to build the canal through portions of New Hope. Coryell found himself in the interesting position of being the person who did the construction work; and as the property owner who received compensation for the damages done to his property by the canal. During this same period he was named as an engineer for the canal, who theoretically approved construction work, which were done by Coryell’s firm, through Coryell’s property.
One other interesting story about Lewis S. Coryell has survived. On July 7, 1863, the Bucks County Intelligencer included local reaction to the invasion of Pennsylvania by Confederate troops, which resulted in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. The newspaper reported: “Some of the citizens of New Hope waited upon Lewis S. Coryell, Chief Burgess of that borough, on Monday morning of last week [June 28th—the day when Confederate troops penetrated Pennsylvania] for the purpose of inducing him to call a meeting of the citizens of that place, to take some action in regard to raising volunteers in response to the Governor’s proclamation calling for 60,000 militia to defend the State from invasion. Mr. Coryell coolly replied, ‘It is more important to have the crops harvested than to be raising volunteers for the defense of the State; and my advice is to all is, go out and work in the fields.’ This threw a damper upon the matter of raising recruits in that village.”
In addition to having a rich history, New Hope boasts wonderful examples of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture. The importance of the town is recognized by the fact that much of the borough is listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. The designation specifically states that the town’s notable buildings included the Parry Mansion (1784), Bucks County Playhouse, Wilkinson House, Logan Inn (1727), Delaware House (1818), Chattels Lumber Yard Office Building (c. 1845), Cook House (1869), Johnson Store (c. 1871), Northeast Pennsylvania Railroad Station (1891), firehouse (1908), and Cryer Hardware Store (1849). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Perhaps the town’s most celebrated house is the Parry Mansion. The Parry Mansion has a 1784 date stone in the peak of the northerly gable. It is a good example of the transition between the Georgian and Federal period. The Parry Mansion is named in honor of Benjamin Parry. Among his varied business ventures, Benjamin Parry operated a gristmill which following its reconstruction after a fire, he called the New Hope Mill that gave the village its name. The main house has large windows with 12/12 sash on the first floor. The first floor windows have keystone lintels. The smaller kitchen wing is actually a later addition to the house rather than being the original structure.
The large, Second Empire Style house at 9 South Main Street in New Hope is one of the landmarks of the town. The May 6, 1874 edition of the Bucks County Intelligencer stated that “George A. Cook has commenced building a new house on a lot in front of his store property” and by August 11, 1874 “the new residence of George A. Cook, adjoining the church property, is now nearly finished, and presents a grand and imposing appearance”.
The National Register nomination highlights Cintra is a historic home located across from the high school. The house was built in 1824, and is a 2 1/2-story, "L"-shaped, stuccoed stone dwelling with a hipped roof. It has a central hub flanked by two identical wings, and is said to have been designed after a Portuguese palace.
A unique enterprise once thrived in New Hope. For the most part cotton and wool were processed for fabric, but around 1829 the silk worm was introduced and a short-lived industry of producing silk began. This was enhanced by a government bounty for the cocoons and farmers the area invested heavily in mulberry trees and larvae. During 1837 through 1839 the silk industry suffered financial disaster and was abandoned in most areas. The silk mill in New Hope lasted into the 1870s but closed soon after and is now in ruin.
Perhaps New Hope’s greatest acclaim is due to its more recent history. In the twentieth century Bucks County became known far and wide for its group of artists who chose to live and work in an area abounding in natural beauty with a background of great historic interest. Although the entire county had its share of artists, the area most closely resembling an artist colony was New Hope. At the end of the nineteenth century this quietly obscure country town and its environs with its impressive landscapes attracted several prominent artists. With them came the growth of New Hope as an artist colony and a haven for writers and craftsmen.
This movement actually began in the tiny villages around New Hope with the arrival of William L. Lathrop in Philips Mill and Edward W. Redfield in Centre Bridge in 1898, and the arrival of Daniel Garber in Lumberville in 1906. These men were not only masterful craftsmen but recognized teachers. Many of the artists who followed came to work with and under Redfield, Lathrop, and Garber. The beautiful Delaware attracted many other painters who settled in the growing community at the end of the century and in the early 1900s.
The artist colony continued to grow in and around New Hope. In John Richardson's Solebury Township, Bucks County Pennsylvania there is a list of nineteen prominent artists who settled in the region by the 1930s. Also included is a list of thirty-eight artists, sculptors, and illustrators who lived in Solebury when the book was written in 1958. This list must be supplemented by the names of numerous artists who settled within New Hope Borough and nearby Buckingham, Doylestown, and Upper Makefield Townships. In the 1978 Retrospective Art Exhibition put on by the Philips Mill Community Association on the 50th Anniversary of the Philips Mill Exhibition, it is noted that over 400 artists live within a 25-mile radius of New Hope.
With the Great Depression of the 1930s came another wave of talented notables. The availability of beautiful old farmhouses on run down farms, and the availability of cheap land in general brought many literary and entertainment celebrities from New York to the county. Authors, playwrights, producers, and actors included S.J. Perelman, Oscar Hammerstein, Moss Hart, and dozens of other nationally prominent figures took advantage of Bucks County's low taxes, scenic beauty, and easy proximity to New York.
This migration prompted several changes in the local environment. The presence of this artist's retreat led directly to the establishment of the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope. The Playhouse became one of the country's first and most important summer stock theaters. Its popularity brought many entertainers and others to the area, directly influencing the growth of New Hope and the surrounding countryside. Today, the Playhouse is reinvigorated and prepared to add to another chapter to the rich history of the riverfront town.
Jeffrey L. Marshall is a Bucks County historian and the president of the Heritage Conservancy.