Tuesday, June 24, 2008

June 2, 2008 - Doylestown and New Hope, PA

Left the RV around 9:30 a.m. to drive to Bensalem where a big visitor center was located. We wanted to get some information about Fallingston and New Hope. When we arrived we were informed that the Quaker Village in Fallingston was not open on a Monday. They gave us some information about Doylestown and New Hope. So we headed for Doylestown. We thought that we would get a bite to eat first before going to any of the museums. We found a great restaurant and had some soup and shared an order of sushi. We arrived at the Moravian Potter and Tile Works Museum and had to wait about 15 minutes for a tour. We went into the shop and looked at some of the tile for sale. We found some individual letters and decided to buy the letters for our last name. The tiles in the floor of the Harrisburg Capitol building were made by this company and was in fact their biggest order ever.

The tour started in another room and we watched a 15 minute video about how the company got started. Henry Mercer was born in Doylestown, PA in 1856. He was a Renaissance man and became a noted tile maker, archaeologist, antiquarian, artist and writer as well as a leader in the turn of the 20th century Arts and Crafts Movement.



Henry Mercer used local clay to make his tiles. Every tile is made by hand and they make decorative tiles and mosaics using designs and techniques made famous by Henry Mercer. We got to see the original kilns that were used, the molds, the room where the clay is stored, actual forming of the tiles, and the hand painting room. It was fun and the tiles were beautiful.
















We drove over to Fonthill, Henry’s dream house built in 1910. The castle has 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 32 stairwells, and more than 200 windows of different sizes.

Next we drove to the town of New Hope where mules pull a barge down the Delaware Canal and you can hitch a ride for a fee of course. We went to the visitor center and asked about the tour and they said that the ride was shut down for at least a year to repair damaged bridges. We were disappointed. We walked through the town and stopped to have some ice cream and before we headed back home. We noticed as we walked back to our car there was some interesting statuary. Also there was a decorated horse like in other towns with other animals. We have now seen flying horses, lambs, bears, goats, and cows. They are all decorated and bought by people and business owners for money and then the money goes to help a particular cause or charity. We enjoyed the day even with all the driving we had to do.



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