Jane Magill House

Anyone who has ever driven North on South Sugan Road towards the Wawa will recognize the next home in our “Beyond the Door” series. On a hillside at the corner of South Sugan and Old York Roads sits this elegantly restored home dating to the 1790s. At that time John Magill built the fieldstone western half of this home in the community of Springdale, on the first-developed Western edge of what now constitutes New Hope. Two other structures diagonally across the road were occupied by Magill family members. Springdale was situated along the Aquetong Creek and this water source allowed for the development of cotton and grist mills there. Housing for the mill workers stood in the area as well, and some of that housing as well as elements of the mills still exist today.


In a will dated October 31, 1812, John Magill left the home to his daughters, Jane and Rachel. He died in 1814. Records in the New Hope Historical Society (NHHS) archives state that Samuel Kinsey built the quarry stone granite eastern half of the home in the 1830s, acquiring title in April 1833. Granite was quarried up the Delaware River and rafted to the Village, arriving by canal after 1832. The 2 ½ story structure is built into the sloping hillside such that the main entrance and basement entrances are both at ground level. NHHS archives documents indicate that two attic-level dormers were added later, possibly at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. Title records indicate there were multiple owners of the property over the years, including John Huffnagle, Owen and Mary Markey, Thomas and Millie Crooks, and Joseph and Rose Zinger.

The home is situated at approximately the midpoint of the two-day trip between New York City and Philadelphia on one of the oldest stagecoach routes in the nation, the “York Road.” The current owners are Brenda and David Locher, and during a visit to the home, David stated that the home was reportedly a tavern and stagecoach stop for weary travelers on their way to NYC or Philadelphia. The basement entrance may well have been used to access a tavern, while the upper floors were used for lodging.

 

Interestingly NHHS archives records show that the 1850 Rogerson and Murphy Survey Map displays only the mill structures and none of the nearby dwellings. Presumably, the mapmakers felt the village to be of little importance in relation to the size of the larger village on the banks of the Delaware River.

 

In 2011, after over 10 years of significant deterioration, the home was extensively and meticulously renovated by Dick and Rick Coluccio (father and son), and Bob Feller. At that point, the house was in dire condition. During the renovation authentic 20-inch-thick fieldstone walls were exposed, original Mercer tiles were found decorating one of the five fireplaces, built-in wood bookcases were kept, and a new north-side addition housing a dining room was built. The Lochers purchased the home after that renovation and have lived there since.

Outside is found a now 350-year-old sycamore tree that was already quite large in a photo from 1917. A stream meanders through the yard, eventually ending in the Aquetong Creek some yards down the road. In addition, the property features one of the county’s remaining stone bridges labeled “Sugan Bridge 1853.” The bridge has been damaged during multiple automobile accidents, and repaired at the urging of David Locher.

Many thanks to the Lochers for allowing us to visit and appreciate their historic home.

 

The members of the Archives Team involved in this project are Nicole Hudson, Archivist and the following volunteers:

 

Michelle Gunnells

Sandie Mines

Tom Lyon

Tom Williams

The Parry Mansion Museum Archives Team is a team of passionate and energetic volunteers who bring diverse, professional backgrounds to advance our archives with programs such as this monthly series “Beyond the Door,” and individual and community research request fulfillment and so much more. Many thanks to the Archives Team!

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.