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Not far from New Hope

Philadelphia and a host of historical and cultural spots lie about 30 miles down the Delaware River from tiny New Hope, but it's not necessary to travel into the big city for some good times. Here's a sampling of the surrounding area:


Doylestown, Pennsylvania

(10 miles southwest)

The Bucks County Historical Society consists of the Mercer Museum, Spruance Library and Fonthill Museum. Among the founders of the historical society in 1880 was tile-maker and antiquarian Henry C. Mercer, who was born and died in Bucks County. The museum's purpose is to preserve the history and culture of the region. Mercer's home, Fonthill, is now home to a non-profit education institution. The 44-room mansion -- laden with Persian, Chinese, Spanish and Dutch tiles, as well as Mercer's own -- is open to guided tours.

84 South Pine Street
(215) 345-0210

James A. Michener Art Museum is housed in an old county jail "transformed into a hub of artistic expression," with special emphasis on Bucks County artists ranging from author Dorothy Parker to lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers and Hammerstein). Fine arts exhibits run from contemporary abstract painting to Japanese printmaking.

138 South Pine Street
(215) 340-9800

Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania

(7 miles southeast)

Washington Crossing Historic Park marks the site where Gen. George Washington and a demoralized Continental Army crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey, taking the British-backed Hessians by surprise at Trenton in 1776. The park includes Revolutionary War graves, a 1930 monument/observation tower built to mark a Revolutionary War lookout point near the river, and yearly re-enactments of Washington's Christmas night crossing.

(215) 493-4076

Langhorne, Pennsylvania

(19 miles south)

Sesame Place is the country's only Sesame Street-themed park, featuring water slides and live shows with Sesame Street characters. The park closes for the season in late October.

100 Sesame Road
(215) 752-7070

Easton, Pennsylvania

(33 miles north)

Delaware Canal (which begins 22 miles south of New Hope in Bristol) ends in Easton, which is now home to the National Canal Museum. All 60 miles of the canal route are now within the Delaware Canal State Park, also a National Historic Landmark, National Recreation Trail, and part of the Delaware and Lehigh Canal National Heritage Tour.

National Canal Museum, 30 Centre Square
(610) 515-8000

Lahaska, Pennsylvania

(4 miles southwest)

Peddler's Village is a 42-acre complex of shopping and lodging run by one of America's earliest hotelier families. Henry Jamison opened a tavern in 1752 which later was named for Revolutionary War Gen. Nathanael Greene. Earl Hart Jamison founded Peddler's Village in 1962 -- and opened the Golden Plough Inn in 1989 just a mile or so from the site of the General Greene Inn.

Crossroads of Routes 202, 263 and Street Road
(215) 794-4000

Perkasie, Pennsylvania

(22 miles west)

Green Hills Farm was the home of author Pearl S. Buck, a daughter of Presbyterian missionaries who spent most of her first 40 years in China. Buck returned to the United States in 1934, buying this 1835 farmhouse in order to be closer to her second husband (publisher Richard Walsh) and her daughter, Carol. Buck, who wrote "The Good Earth" and "East Wind, West Wind," among dozens of other books, died in 1973 and is buried at the farm.

520 Dublin Road
(800) 220-2825

Lambertville, New Jersey

(just across the Delaware River)

  • The Delaware and Raritan Canal runs through Lambertville, following the course of the Delaware River like its cousin through New Hope. The canal state park offers bike paths, trails and boat launches.
  • The Holcombe-Jimison Farmstead Museum on Route 29 houses memorabilia from the surrounding area. (609) 397-1810
  • Train excursions are available on the Black River & Western Railroad in nearby Ringoes.
  • The Marshall House at 60 Bridge Street is the early childhood home of James Wilson Marshall, whose discovery of gold in California led to the famed gold rush in 1849.
  • The streets of Lambertville, just a short walk over the bridge from New Hope, also offer shopping and dining.

Trenton, New Jersey

(16 miles southeast)

The New Jersey State Police Museum contains uniforms, weapons and evidence from the famed Lindbergh kidnapping case

(609) 882-2000, extension 2557

Historical interpreters wear Revolutionary War-period clothes and explain early American life at the Old Barracks Museum.

Capitol Complex
(609) 396-1776


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