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Doylestown is the name of both a borough and the adjacent township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 34 miles (55 km) north of Philadelphia. At the turn of the century in 1900, 3,034 people lived in the borough of Doylestown, and in 1910, 3,304 people lived there. As of the 2000 census, the borough population was 8,227, and the township a population of 16,747. The borough is the county seat of Bucks County.
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Doylestown Culture
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Doylestown Borough is home to three structures designed and built by Henry Chapman Mercer as museums and cultural sites. The Mercer Museum houses a collection known as "Tools of the Nation Maker"¹, and is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world. The Bucks County Historical Society also maintains a research library adjoining the museum. Fonthill (also known as "Mercer's Castle") was Mercer's home and houses his collection of artifacts from around the world. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is an operational factory using the tools and techniques used by Pennsylvania German potters in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The former prison, across the street from the Mercer Museum, has been converted into the James A. Michener Art Museum. The borough also boasts a small music conservatory, writers' and artists' organizations and other cultural activities.
Doylestown is also located near the Polish-American Roman Catholic shrine known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which houses a painting of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, Poland.
The Fountain House, a historic building, is located in Doylestown Borough.
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Doylestown Education
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Doylestown is the location of several educational facilities of the Central Bucks School District. The Borough contains two elementary schools (Doyle Elementary and Linden Elementary) , one middle school (Lenape Middle School) and one high school (Central Bucks West).
Also located in Doylestown is Bucks County's regional educational service agency: The Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22.
Doylestown Township also contains the campus of Delaware Valley College, which is still primarily known as an agricultural school.
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Doylestown History
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Doylestown's origins date to 1745 when William Doyle obtained a license to build a tavern on what is now the northwest corner of Main and State Street. Known for years as "William Doyle's Tavern", its strategic location at the intersection of the road linking Swede's Ford (Norristown) and Coryell's Ferry (New Hope) (now U.S. Route 202) and the road linking Philadelphia and Easton (now PA Route 611) - allowed the hamlet to blossom into a village. The first church was erected in 1815, followed by the establishment of a succession of congregations throughout the 19th century.
During the first decade of the 19th century discontent developed with the location of the county seat for Bucks County because Newtown was not a central location. The more centrally located Doylestown became the county seat in 1813. An outgrowth of Doylestown's new courthouse was the development of "lawyers row", a collection of Federal-style offices. One positive consequence of early 19th century investment in the new county seat was organized fire protection, which began in 1825 with the Doylestown Fire Engine Company.
In 1838 the Borough of Doylestown was incorporated.
An electric telegraph station was built in 1846 and in 1856 a branch of the North Pennsylvania Railroad was completed to Doylestown. The first gas lights were introduced in 1854. Because of the town's relatively high elevation and a lack of strong water power, substantial industrial development never occurred and Doylestown evolved to have a professional and residential character.
During the mid-nineteenth century several large tracts located east of the courthouse area were subdivided into neighborhoods. The next significant wave of development occurred after the Civil War when the 30-acre Magill property to the southwest of the town's core was subdivided for residential lots.
In 1869 Doylestown established a water works. The first telephone line arrived in 1878, the same year that a new courthouse was erected. 1897 saw the first of several trolley lines connecting Doylestown with Willow Grove, Newtown and Easton beginning operation. A private sewer system and treatment plant was authorized in 1903. The Borough took over and expanded sewer service to about three-quarters of the town in 1921.
In the early 20th century, Doylestown became best known to the outside world through the "Tools of the Nation-Maker" museum of the Bucks County Historical Society. Henry Chapman Mercer constructed the reinforced poured concrete building in 1916 to house his collection of mechanical tools and utensils. Upon his death in 1930, Mercer also left his similarly constructed home Fonthill and adjacent "Moravian Pottery and Tile Works", to be operated as a museum. The home was left on the condition that his housekeeper be allowed to live there for the rest of her life. She lived there and gave tours until the mid nineteen-seventies.
By 1931, the advent of the automobile and improved highway service had put the last trolley line out of business and Doylestonians were forced to embrace the automobile as the primary means of travel within the region. The Great Depression took its toll, as many grant old houses constructed a century earlier fell into disrepair. During the 1930s, the Borough also expanded its land area to the north by admission of the tract known as the Doylestown Annex.
In the decade following World War II, Doylestown's business community boomed. During the 1940s, streets were paved for the first time in two decades and parking meters were introduced downtown in 1948. However, the Borough's post-war housing boom did not begin in earnest until the 1950s, when 550 new homes were built. This housing boom continued into the 1960s and 1970s, as more than 1,600 new homes were built during those decades and the Borough's population grew from 5,917 in 1960 to 8,717 in 1980.
As with many small towns across the country, the growth of the post war decades also brought a new competitor to the downtown business district -- the shopping mall. By the 1960s, the toll could be seen in Doylestown by the numerous vacant buildings and dilapidated storefronts in the center of town. The Bucks County Redevelopment Authority responded with a federal urban renewal scheme that called for the demolition of 27 historic buildings. The local business community objected to such wholesale clearance and responded with its own plan called Operation '64 -- the Doylestown Plan for Self-Help Downtown Renewal. This private initiative was successful in saving Doylestown's old buildings and historic character, while improving business at the same time. One historic landmark that could not be saved was the 80-year-old courthouse and clock tower, which was replaced by the present county complex in the early 1960s.
By the end of the 1980s, the downtown business district was again showing the toll of massive new competition from the latest wave of suburban shopping centers, as well as the recession that hit hardest in the northeastern states. In response, the Borough Council established a volunteer group of civic-minded representatives from business organizations, government, and the residential community to begin to formulate plans for the downtown area in 1992. This effort resulted in streetscape improvements composed of cast iron street lamps and brick pavers, facade improvements and other beautification efforts, and the establishment of a Main Street Manager Program.
As the 1990s progressed, the downtown rebuilt itself largely by turning to an out-of-town audience. Doylestown had long been respected as a bucolic tourist destination; the gentry of Philadelphia and New York frequently maintained country estates in the area, and the stars of the Manhattan theatre and literary scenes often summered there. The Mercer museums and the local National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa brought a regular stream of short term visitors through the area as well. With charitable support, the art deco County Theater was restored and reopened showing arthouse fare, and a new main library and art museum were built around the ruins of the old stone jail, across the street from Mercer's castle. An official "resort town" designation exempted the area from liquor licence caps and empty commercial space began to fill with a dense and vibrant nighttime scene of bars and restaurants.
This development goes hand in hand with the broader development of the region; as the Philadelphia metropolitan area expanded from southern into central Bucks County, the fields and farms of the communities around Doylestown quickly began to sprout housing developments, many erected by local builder Toll Brothers, who rode the "McMansion" concept they developed there to national prominence. This development brought thousands of people to the area, but the neighborhoods created often lacked longstanding institutions or discernable centers. Doylestown, more centrally located than Delaware River-fronting New Hope, PA, which had traditionally served this function, was able to position itself as the regional center of culture and nightlife.
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Doylestown News
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Search for "Doylestown PA" - Reader Voices - PhillyBurbs.com
| July 4, 2008 Get going at night If you are going to travel Interstate 95 anywhere south, do some serious thinking about leaving, perhaps, in the middle of the night. |
- American Nurse Today Publishes 'No More Nurse Abuse' - PR.com
| American Nurse Today, the official journal of the American Nurses Association , has published, "No more abuse," an article targeting how to handle the abuse in the workplace. |
- Peter Putman, CTS, ISF - InfoComm International
| June 19, 2008 -- InfoComm International, the leading professional audiovisual trade association, presented its Educator of the Year Award to Peter Putman. |
- URMC and Power Line Systems Team to Integrate URMC's... - Business Wire
| URMC announced today that it has entered into a teaming agreement with Power Line Systems Inc. |
- Voice my Opinion - PhillyBurbs.com
| Responsible relief AMT addressed without adding to debt. Gun ban struck down But the court ruling doesn't end debate Welcome news Student test scores on the way up Ready to help Bill Clinton makes an offer to ... |
- Ronald H. Kellough - Chillicothe Gazette
| Ronald H. Kellough, 68, of Wernersville, passed away June 21, 2008, at 9:00 p.m. in his residence. |
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Doylestown Transportation
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Train
Doylestown is connected to Philadelphia by SEPTA's R5 Regional Rail Line and 55 bus. Doylestown Station is the last stop on the R5 line. Doylestown also has a small public transportation system called DART, which consists (as of March, 2006) of a single bus route. Primarily used by the elderly, it travels to destinations in Doylestown, including department stores, pharmacies and restaurants.
Air
Doylestown Airport is a public general aviation airport that provides mostly private transportation. It is located about 3 miles north of the center of town, on PA 611 and PA 313. Live Aiport Webcam also has audio of weather conditions and pilot ATC communications.
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