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by Bob Waite
It was a quarter century ago, in the early ’90s, that my brother Bill and his wife Vicky decided to publish a magazine that focused on Bucks County. At the time they were busy with a lifestyle magazine that circulated throughout the entire Delaware Valley, focused on entertainment, fashion, art and timely articles. Its model was city magazines like Philadelphia Magazine, New York Magazine and others that were very popular at the time. Bill, however, saw that not only were there too many such magazines on the stands with the same themes, but also that he lived in the most beautiful part of the Delaware Valley. Bucks County, he and Vicky realized, is an area known for its beautiful Colonial homes, well-kept Victorian towns and rolling countryside. Its history is intimately tied with the American Revolutionary War, and it is an important art and antiques center.
They put out the first issue of Bucks County Town & County Living in the fall of 1992. The ads that would pay for its production were sold on a promise. Advertisers and potential readers were excited by this new magazine that would showcase their county. The magazine was a success and people began to subscribe in droves and it flew off the stands.
I came on board just when the Winter 1992 issue was being put together. I needed a job and had some magazine editing experience. Bill believed I could edit the magazine and I with much fear and trembling took the job. There were several others working for the magazine part time and a few sales representatives. Our very talented art director, Lisa Dayton, who had once worked for some of the best national home and garden magazines, gave me a thorough education on how to work with a designer and sheer trial and error and the grace of God taught me the business.
Every issue, we decided, would feature a beautiful Bucks County home. At first this was going to be only Bucks County farmhouses that dated back to the Colonial and Revolutionary period, but soon we began doing the beautiful Victorians that were so plentiful in Bucks County towns. Bill, who set the formula for the magazine, started accepting reproductions and a few times we actually featured a contemporary house.
On the first two covers, we had photographs by our photographer Randl Bye. But by the time Summer 1993 rolled along, we put a painting on the cover. Since Bucks County is known for its art and was the center of Pennsylvania Impressionism, it seemed fitting that we put art on the cover. This was also successful, and in fact, won us a national award, an Ozzie, for Best Cover, New Regional or City Magazine. We also won that year an Eddy for editorial excellence. Our award was for Best Regional or City Magazine with circulation under 100,000.
During the Fall of 1993 David Frame painted a cover for us, and then then during that winter Ranulph Bye, the nationally known painter and uncle of our photographer, Randl Bye, let us use one of his paintings on the cover. After that David Frame became our cover artist with the title artist-in-residence. His covers were amazing and included landscapes, architectural structures, portraits, and drawings. By painting our covers for more than a decade, David Frame’s versatile style gave us a sense of continuity and identity. He painted covers for us until his death on January 23, 2008.
Since David we tried having different painters paint each issue, and even though these covers were all well done, we liked the branding effect of having an artist-in-residence. In our search for a new artist-in-residence we looked for an artist whose work fit with our idea of what Bucks County is about. Our decision, after reviewing the work of many local artists, was an artist from Newtown, James Redding, who more than met our criteria for artist-in-residence. When James moved to Nashville at the end of 2015, we needed another artist and began a new search. We found our current artist-in-residence, Jennifer Hansen Rolli, who is also the cover artist for our new magazine, MONTCO Homes, Gardens & Lifestyle. Jennifer’s paintings have infused new life into our magazines and her technical skill, vision and diversity keep a creative continuity from issue to issue.
The history of Bucks County has from the beginning been the subject of many article we produced over the years. We wrote about a town in each issue until all the towns we could write about were exhausted and then we began the series again. In fact, three times we did a series on the history of Bucks County towns. Being a quarterly our first town series spanned more than five years. The historians who wrote about our towns were Terry McNealy and Jeffrey Marshal, both renowned experts in Bucks County history.
Gardens were just as important in our first issue as they are now. Our Gardening department began as stories about particular gardens in Bucks County. As time went on though we received calls and correspondence from readers who wanted a more how to do approach. So we gradually moved in that direction. Our landscaping articles, though, focus on a variety of projects.
Our feature articles include food, culture, art and places to go, and local charities. We also have done many series which include series on our museums, theatres, farms, parks, country stores, one-room schoolhouses, furniture makers, covered bridges, and auctions.
People that have paraded through our magazine for the past 25 years have included musicians, artists, doctors, lawyers, clowns, woodworkers, builders, actors, entrepreneurs, scientists and people who collect everything from toys to lightning rods. Local notables like Earl Jamison, T. Walter Styer Jr., Herman Silverman, Mira Nakashima, Robert Whitley, Wayne Kramer, Joyce Byers, and a long list of other have been seen in the pages of our magazine.
A quarter century since the introduction of Bucks County Town & Country Living, Bucks County Magazine is still considered the county’s premiere magazine. The current team, which together makes Bucks County Magazine possible, consists of the founders Bill Waite (publisher) and Vicky Waite (advertising vice president). Busy in every aspect of running a regional magazine, they also work hands-on with ad sales and art, Melissa Kutalek is our administrator, circulation manager one of our contributing photographers. Bob Waite is the editor. Our photographers include Randl Bye, Paul Wesley, Derek Fell, Jess Graves and Stacey Simcik. Our current writers are Beth Buxbaum, Diana Cercone, Derek Fell, Patti Guthrie, Lew Larason, Michele Malinchak, Frank Quattrone, Margo Ragan, Mary Beth Schwartz, Chrysa Smith, Bob Waite and Vicky Waite. Our account executives are Frank Boyd, Lisa Bridge, Kathy Driver, Lisa Kruse and Ann Ferro Murray. Together we continue to publish the magazine most seen on coffee tables in Bucks County homes.