⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ Walking tour of New Hope, Pennsylvania

October 15, 2023 - 12:00 PM
58°F / 14°C

Walking tour of New Hope in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, via the following route: Delaware Canal Towpath → north on Main Street → west on Bridge Street → south on Stockton Avenue → east on Mechanic Street

Highlights:
00:00 - Delaware Canal Towpath
02:23 - "Boomer" by Dana Stewart
02:43 - Walking north on Main Street
08:01 - New Hope Visitors Center
08:41 - Bucks County Playhouse
10:29 - Parry Mansion Museum
11:20 - Ferry Landing Park
13:37 - New Hope Ferry Market
15:49 - Walking west on Bridge Street
18:20 - New Hope Railroad
20:57 - Walking south on Stockton Avenue
22:25 - Crossing Aquetong Creek
24:01 - Walking east on Mechanic Street

From Wikipedia:
"New Hope is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,612 at the 2020 census. New Hope is located approximately 30 mi (48 km) north of Philadelphia, and lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. New Hope and neighboring Solebury and Upper Makefield townships are part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The two-lane New Hope–Lambertville Bridge carries automobile and foot traffic across the Delaware to Lambertville, New Jersey, on the east bank. New Hope's primary industry is tourism.

New Hope is located along the route of the Old York Road, the former main highway between Philadelphia and New York City. It was generally regarded as the halfway point, where travelers would stay overnight and be ferried across the Delaware River the next morning. The section of U.S. Route 202 that passes just north of New Hope is still named York Road, and the original route is now known as Bridge Street (PA 179).

New Hope was first called "Coryell's Ferry," after the owner of the ferry business. The current name came into use following a fire in 1790 that destroyed several mills in the area; their reconstruction was considered a "new hope."

The night prior to George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, he is said to have lodged in New Hope. He destroyed the ferry so the British could not follow him, and after the battles of Trenton and Princeton, when British troops were sweeping the area for the American forces, there was no response when they rang for the ferry. The British assumed the town was sympathetic to the Colonial forces and shelled the town. Several of the older structures in the town still claim to have unexploded British ordnance lodged in their roofbeams.

Historic former residents include James A. Michener and Aaron Burr.

The North Pennsylvania Railroad finished construction of their New Hope Branch in 1891, later being taken over by the Reading Railroad. Passenger service to Philadelphia's Reading Terminal as well as all other passenger activity was terminated in 1952 from Hatboro, also the end for electrified track, and New Hope. Between 1952 and 1966, only freight trains were seen entering and leaving New Hope, mostly to deliver paper pulp for the Union Camp Paper Corp. and to deliver sand and gravel to James D. Morrissey Materials Co., a cement company and a division of James D. Morrissey, Inc. In 1966, the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad was formed and bought 16 mi (26 km) of track from New Hope southwest to Ivyland. Scenic tourist excursions started the same year. Freight service to New Hope was then handled by the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad. In 1972, SEPTA, who by then took over Reading Railroad's passenger operations, extended the electrified route to Warminster, where the current interchange for both SEPTA and NHRR is. Freight service to James D. Morrissey Materials Co. ceased sometime in the late 1970s and to Union Camp Paper Corp. in 1985. The New Hope and Ivyland Railroad continues to provide scenic tourist excursion passenger trains between New Hope and nearby Lahaska.

In 1983, NBC network anchorwoman Jessica Savitch and her boyfriend drowned after their car overturned into the Delaware Canal. The canal passes by Odette's Restaurant, where the couple had dined on a rainy evening when visibility was poor and two warning signs were missed.

In 2004 and 2006, New Hope was flooded when the Delaware River overflowed its banks. On both occasions, the downtown businesses reopened within several days. Compared to the Great Flood of 1955, the 2004 and 2006 floods did not cause severe damage or fatalities."