Bucks County & the Delaware River Valley Alive

Introduction

I decided on a region where the landscapes are varied, where farm and industry lived side by side, where the sea was near at hand, mountains not far away, and city and countryside were not enemies.

- Pearl S. Buck

Long before the Broadway smart set - Oscar Hammerstein II, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart - discovered Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1920s and 1930s, the region surrounding the Delaware River (in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey) served as a sanctuary for intellectuals, artisans and Bohemians. Located midway between New York City and Philadelphia, the region was an easy draw for artists and actors eager to escape their harried city lives for a more peaceful countryside existence.

Today, the region's artistic legend continues with intimate cooking schools run by master French chefs, vineyards and brew pubs, foreign cinemas, theater, antiques and flea markets, shad fishing on the Delaware, hot-air ballooning and romantic inns.

Sadly, many of these artistic and cultural treasures go undiscovered by visitors. Those in the area only a few days (or sometimes just hours) will see the tourist shops and try a restaurant, but ultimately miss the true artistic essence and spirit of the region.

This book provides an artistic guide to the area and, most importantly, connects the region for visitors. While many guidebooks refer to Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and the nearby towns of Doylestown and Princeton, they rarely do so in the same breath (never mind book). Yet, to those living and working in southeastern Pennsylvania and central New Jersey, there are no clear distinctions between counties or states. Bucks County residents often work in Princeton or travel there for shopping or theater (the McCarter Theatre is one of the top regional equity theaters in the country). Those living in Princeton frequently seek out the Delaware River towns - with their cozy inns and tucked-away restaurants - for evenings out and even weekends away.

Like many Delaware River Valley residents, I landed here serendipitously. But over time, the region has become home, and while there are more McMansions (massive, executive-style homes) than I ever hoped to see being built on pastoral farmlands, the region remains rich in cultural and artistic treasures. This guidebook reveals many of them.

How To Use This Book

Bucks County & The Delaware River Valley Alive! divides the region into six key sections, with the Delaware River serving as centerpiece.

Area Overview

The tour begins with the art colony of New Hope, Pennsylvania, located on the west bank of the Delaware River in southeastern Pennsylvania. Although it has only four main streets, this tiny town is, itself, a destination. But your trip just begins here.

Part of the allure of any trip to New Hope is exploring, at a snail's pace, the narrow and twisting River Road (Route 32), with its charming stone houses, inns and towpath. You'll need a car for this scenic tour, which begins in New Hope and heads north along River Road, with stop-offs in the towns of Lumberville, Point Pleasant and Erwinna.

An iron bridge for both cars and pedestrians connects New Hope, Pennsylvania to Lambertville, New Jersey, on the east side of the Delaware.

While not as scenic as Route 32 (its Pennsylvania counterpart), Route 29, which follows the Delaware River on the New Jersey side, is also worthy of exploration. This excursion starts in Lambertville and heads north to Stockton, detours to Rosemont and Sergeantsville, and resumes on Route 29 to Frenchtown.

No visitor to the Delaware River Valley should miss the region's cultural centers: Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a half-hour west of New Hope; and Princeton, New Jersey, located just a half-hour east of Lambertville.

Princeton highlights include tours of Princeton University, the Tony-award-winning McCarter Theatre, upscale shopping and stunning architecture.

Geology & Geography

The Delaware is everywhere a river on the brink, holding off extinction, awaiting discovery.

- Bruce Stutz, Pennsylvania author

The Delaware River is the longest free-flowing river on the east coast. Originating in the Catskill Mountains of New York, the river flows a total of 375miles to the Atlantic Ocean, winding its way through four states - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In Bucks County and Hunterdon County, the geographic elements of the river are striking. Near Erwinna, Pennsylvania and Frenchtown, New Jersey, the Delaware is narrow and isolated, except for a few islands and bridges, as it twists beneath hillsides and cliffs of strange-colored layers of rocks; in New Hope, Pennsylvania and Lambertville, New Jersey, the river is wider and lazier.

Towpaths and canals flank both sides of the river and tiny islands occasionally part the river in the middle.

The Environment

River Life

Shad run the Delaware River each April, using the non-tidal waters as an opportunity to spawn. Herring and striped bass follow.

The shad share a long history with the Delaware. In 1896, a record 19 million pounds of shad were caught in the river and Delaware Bay but, about 40 years ago, the Delaware River was so polluted that there was no catch at all. Successful cleanup efforts by the New Jersey Fish, Game and Wildlife Division brought the shad back; in 1982 the first catch was nearly 4,000. Today, Lambertville continues to celebrate the return of the shad with an annual and quite lavish end-of-April Shad Festival.

The Canals

The Delaware Canal in Pennsylvania, and the Delaware & Raritan Canal in New Jersey both run adjacent to the river. The canals were built over a period of several years in the early 1800s to move coal from mine to market. Soon after the railroad put the mule-drawn barges out of business, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased 40 miles of canal and, later, added the remaining 20 miles.

Delaware Canal at Washington Crossing, just south of New Hope

In 1974, the New Jersey side of the canal was designated a state park, administered by the Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission. In 1989, the Pennsylvania side was deemed the Delaware Canal State Park and, in 1990, became part of the National Trail System.

Today, the canals and towpaths on both sides of the Delaware are used for recreational walking, hiking, jogging, biking, fishing, birding, canoeing and even horseback riding.

Disappearing Farmlands

During the late 1940s, Bucks County was 67% farmland, with farms occupying over 260,000 acres. As of the late 1990s, the percentage of farmland had been reduced to only 18% of the county, representing 70,000 acres. On almost a daily basis, developers with large volumes of cash can be found knocking on the doors of Bucks County farmhouses with the intent of buying the rolling hills of farmland and turning the cornfields and pastures into housing developments. Efforts are underway, however, to save the remaining farmlands and preserve the agricultural roots and historic charm of the area.

Wildlife

Despite the rapid residential growth during the past decade, wildlife continues to flourish. Plump, white geese and mallard ducks flock naturally to the canals and river's edge. Beaver activity has been spotted in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Raccoons, opossums, chipmunks, turkey buzzards, pheasants, foxes, porcupines and skunks make their homes in wooded areas. Squirrels are abundant (in Princeton, there are all-black squirrels). And be careful of deer; large herds are often seen darting through fields and across residential lawns and highways.

History

The First People

The Lenni Lenape (Original People) were the first to discover the fertile Delaware River valley, settling here in 1397. The Lenape hunted and fished along the Delaware and its tributaries, and today some of the major roads along the river follow their original hunting-and-gathering trails. Early settlers in the area called the Lenape Delaware Indians because their many villages flanked both sides of the river.

When William Penn came to the region in the 1600s, he was respectful of the Lenape and, in turn, gained the tribe's loyalty and trust. Following Penn's death, however, tension built as greedy settlers tried to steal the tribe's land. By the 1800s, the Lenape had moved west. Today, only a handful of Lenape Indians remain - all in Oklahoma.

Colonization

Bucks County was officially founded in 1681 by William Penn, who named the colony after Buckingham, the shire in which he was born. The resemblance to England is clear even today. Rolling countryside drops down to the wide Delaware River just as England's does along the Thames; crossroads pubs and stone houses here would look equally at home in the Cotswolds. But the ties to the Motherland stop there.

The Liberty Bell was hidden in Bucks County to prevent the British Army from melting it for ammunition.

In 1776, the region played a pivotal role in turning the tide of the Revolutionary War when George Washington led his ragged army across the ice-choked Delaware River to assault the unsuspecting Hessian troops at Trenton. Washington Crossing State Park, just south of New Hope, commemorates the event every December 25th with a re-enactment of the historic event.

The 20th Century

In the late 1920s and '30s, the region's bucolic beauty, cheap real estate, proximity to New York City and the lure of country living attracted artistic, literary and theatrical luminaries such as Oscar Hammerstein II, Pearl S. Buck, Dorothy Parker and James Michener. The New York media labeled the area the genius belt. With the artists' arrival came the Bucks County Playhouse and a multitude of restaurants, galleries, studios and specialty shops.

The living room of Dorothy Parker's house in Pipersville, near Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was painted in 10 shades of red. The writer's carpets were also red, as was her furniture. The idea was so outrageous, so contrary to convention that locals dubbed Parker's style Pipersville Modern.

Today, the region continues to attract an eclectic group of artists, writers, poets and actors, many of whom make their homes and studios in historic, out-of-the-way fieldstone houses, renovated barns and converted carriage houses.

CELEBRITY WATCH

The following personalities have (or once had) homes in the Delaware River Valley.

Peter Benchley, writer

Pierce Brosnan, actor

Pearl S. Buck, Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian and author

Bill Cosby, actor

Albert Einstein, scientist

Harrison Ford, actor

Daniel Garber, impressionist painter

Richard Gere, actor

Oscar Hammerstein II, writer and lyricist

Moss Hart, playwright

Edward Hicks, primitive painter

Peter Jennings, news anchor

George S. Kaufman, playwright

Henry Chapman Mercer, artist, architect, and collector

Toni Morrison, writer, Nobel laureate

Joyce Carol Oates, writer

Dorothy Parker, poet, humorist, and drama critic

S.J. Perelman, humorist

Christopher Reeve, actor

Nelson Shanks, realist painter

Ben Solowey, local artist

Gennady Spirin, artist and children's book illustrator

Stephen Sondheim, writer and lyricist

Writer Dorothy Parker alarmed her neighbors by chopping down ancient trees that were blocking the light outside her home in Pipersville. Moss Hart, by contrast, was Bronx-born and dirt-poor until his first Broadway hit, but spent $33,000 planting trees on his Bucks County property.

Getting Here & Getting Around

The Best Time to Visit

High season for travel in the Delaware River Valley area is late spring through fall, with the heaviest concentration of visitors on the weekends. On Sundays in particular, both New Hope and Lambertville can become a bumper-to-bumper sea of cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks towing boats. If at all possible, try to visit during the week, when many inns offer lower rates and crowds are at a minimum.

In New Hope, parking can be especially difficult. Try parking on the side-streets of Lambertville and walking across the iron bridge to New Hope, or park at the New Hope-Solebury High School on Route 179. A sidewalk leads from the