Formerly a Doctor’s Office, Now a Bed and Breakfast- The Aaron Burr House

The Aaron Burr House, 80 W. Bridge St., today.


May 19, 2025


New Hope Historical Society (NHHS) volunteers recently visited The Aaron Burr House, at 80 West Bridge Street. This historic property has had several uses over the years, including doctor’s office, dentist’s office, personal residence, and bed and breakfast.


Records in the NHHS archives indicate the current structure was not present in the 1850 atlas, and was built in 1873 on land that was once part of the large Paxson estate. That estate once extended from Bridge Street north to Rabbit Run (where North Main Street crosses the Delaware Canal) and all the way east to the Delaware River from where the high school is situated today. The 1873 building was built directly across Chestnut street from the famed Washington Chestnut tree, where legend has it that George Washington tied up his horse at the time of the Battle of Trenton. The tree and Washington were famously depicted years afterward by New Hope folk artist Joseph Pickett in his work “Washington under the Council Tree.” Pickett’s art now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art and other museums. The tree stood until 1893.



NHHS archives show the second owner was J. Ernest Scott, MD and wife Elizabeth Scott starting in 1902. In a 1979 entry to the files, prolific archivist Ann Niessen adds: “The New Hope News for July 5, 1907 tells us that Dr. Scott chaired a movement to have two cannons placed at 2 of the 3 known redoubt sites in the Borough during the American Revolution. Dr. Scott spoke at the prestigious dedication ceremonies for this event. Those residents of New Hope who remember the cannon in front of Dr. Scott’s house tell us it was cast of solid bronze.” The cannon at the corner of Bridge and Ferry Streets was removed “sometime after the Second World War” per Niessen.

Searches continue for documentation relating to Aaron Burr and a New Hope connection. Burr’s father was second president of the nearby College of New Jersey, now Princeton University.             

Undated photo of cannon (placed in 1907) at corner of Bridge and Chestnut Streets, from the book “Not Built by Human Hands” by Joseph DiPaolo, page 134. House shown is a home that still stands across Chestnut Street from the Aaron Burr House which is not shown and would be to the right. 



1977 photo of 80 West Bridge Street from NHHS archives.


The Aaron Burr House was originally a large 2 ½ story Victorian clapboard single family dwelling featuring 3 ornately carved wood gables. It was soon put into use as both a downstairs doctor’s office with an upstairs for the residence of the doctor and family. Three separate building entrances were used for patients, family and neighbors. Physician exam rooms on the first floor were later used by a dentist whose Bunsen burner gas hookup can still be found there. On the second floor is a dining area, living room and kitchen, once a personal residence and in recent decades used by guests of the bed and breakfast. Today, elegant bedrooms (sleeping up to 17) with private baths are located throughout the building, including the basement which is partially above ground. A more modern addition exists on the Northern side of the building.

Second floor views of living room and dining area.


By 1990 Carl Glassman and Nadine Silnutzer owned this bed and breakfast as well as the Wedgwood Inn on Bridge Street. In 2017 ownership was transferred to Lisa Pretecrum who maintains the bed and breakfast to this day. She reports two lots were joined together under the Glassman/Silnutzer ownership. Ms. Pretecrum also owns another New Hope bed and breakfast, Porches on the Towpath, 20 Fishers Alley, for the last 4 years.

Historic markers on façade.


Many thanks to Lisa Pretecrum for sharing her business and its history with us.

 

NHHS Board Member and volunteer Tom Lyon as well as volunteers Michele Gunnells, Sandie Mines, and Tom Williams participated in preparing this article.

Beyond The Door

Methodists, Marsha Brown, and Oldstone Steakhouse

April 13, 2025
April 14, 2025 One of the most prominent buildings in New Hope today is found at the current location of the Oldestone Steakhouse . For 125 years it was the home of the New Hope Methodists, under various names including the New Hope Methodist Episcopal and New Hope United Methodist Church. The history of this building is intertwined with the history of New Hope and helps inform us about how societal trends impacted our community. To prepare this article, volunteers from the New Hope Historical Society met and toured the building with current Oldestone owner/partner, Michael Sklar. They also spoke with Walter Jennings who was born while his father pastored the church in the 1940’s. Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo was also interviewed. He was pastor of the church from 1992 to its last service on Main Street in 1999 and was the first pastor after it then moved to Aquetong Road in Solebury. Rev. DiPaolo wrote lengthy and well-documented histories (1,2) of Methodism and other religious entities in New Hope and nearby areas covering the years 1818-2003. These sources, coupled with the archives of the New Hope Historical Society, provided the content of this article. Rev. DiPaolo writes in his book that in the early years of Bucks County’s development, residents were largely Quakers, with a local meeting house built on Sugan Road in Solebury by 1805. In addition to Quakers, Bucks County was home to Scots Irish Presbyterians. They formed the first New Hope Sunday school in 1818 and met in what was known then as the Academy, still standing at 129 Bridge Street. It was in the Academy that the first Methodist congregation in New Hope also met by 1818: the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church which later took the name Mt. Moriah and drew congregants from the African American community. In 1830, another Methodist group began meeting at the Sutton home on W. Mechanic Street, drawing from the White community. By 1837, a simple wood-frame church building had been built at the southwest corner of West Mechanic Street and New Street, the first such structure in New Hope. The second great awakening in America (1795-1835) was occurring and by 1845 there were 12 churches in the area of New Hope, Solebury and what was then called Lambert’s Ville. The building at 15 South Main Street was built 1873-1874 on land between the Logan House (now the Logan Inn) and the then newly constructed Crook home (now the Mansion Inn). The land was purchased for $600, having once been part of tracts owned by well-known New Hope historical figures: Richard Heath, Benjamin Canby, John Coryell, and Joseph Stockton. The church architect was James Bird, and the stone mason was Peter S. Naylor. By the time it was completed it was valued at $14,000. It replaced the Methodist church on Mechanic Street, for which no known photos exist today. A newspaper at the time reported the prior church was in a bad location and in dilapidated condition. The old Methodist cemetery still exists adjacent to the parking lot driveway from Mechanic Street to the New Hope Borough Municipal Office. Rev. DiPaolo reports that a cemetery clean-up in 1959 resulted in some gravestones not being placed in their original location.

Buttonwood Street Home was Once a Stable across Bridge Street at the Old Hip-Roof House

January 17, 2025
Buttonwood Street in New Hope is just one block north on Chestnut Street from Bridge Street. This article will focus on one home on Buttonwood, but also remark on other interesting properties nearby. The subject home on Buttonwood was once a stable located on the Bridge Street property now known as the Wedgwood Inn Bed and Breakfast. The inn is clearly visible from Buttonwood Street. At a recent visit to the property on Buttonwood the current owner related that the stable was built in 1833, and at least partially supporting that assertion was the hand-hewn post and beam construction found under the walls during modern renovations. Such construction was most common from the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries. As stated in our earlier "Beyond the Door" article about the Wedgwood Inn, the building now housing the inn was constructed in 1870 on the stone foundation of an earlier "old hip-roof" house built in 1720. The Buttonwood property owner says the stable was moved to its current location in the 1940's or 1950's and then was used by a blacksmith, and later an upholsterer. In 1958 it was converted to a home. If the stable dates to 1833, it must have been present during the time of both the original 1720 house as well as the still extant 1870 building now housing the Wedgwood Inn. 

Parry‘s General Provisions Store

October 30, 2024
Situated directly across Main Street from New Hope Historical Society’s Parry Mansion is one of the oldest surviving buildings in New Hope, now housing several commercial ventures including Farley’s Bookshop. The New Hope Historical Society (NHHS) archives include a copy of Margaret Bye Richie’s extensive and well-documented review of historic buildings in New Hope for her 1987 academic dissertation in the University of Pennsylvania Department of American Civilization. In it, she noted that the northern portion of the building was built circa 1748 and was represented on Benjamin Parry’s 1798 map as “No. 21”, while the southern portion was built circa 1830 near the time of the canal construction. Her 1980’s conversation with local architect Donald Hedges quoted him that in 1940 a sign stating “Parry’s General Store” still hung on the building. The Parry Store was likely the first provisions store in New Hope.