Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Mercer Museum in Doylestown

Bucks County is one of the three original counties created by colonial proprietor William Penn in 1682. Penn named the county after Buckinghamshire, the county in which he lived in England. He built a country estate, Pennsbury Manor, in Falls Township, Bucks County.

Some places in Bucks County were named after locations in Buckinghamshire, including Buckingham and Buckingham Township, named after the former county town of Buckinghamshire; Chalfont, named after Chalfont St Giles, the parish home of William Penn's first wife and the location of the Jordans Quaker Meeting House, where Penn is buried; Solebury Township, named after Soulbury, England; and Wycombe, named after the town of High Wycombe.

Bucks County was originally much larger than it is today. Northampton County was formed in 1752 from part of Bucks County, and Lehigh County was formed in 1812 from part of Northampton County.

General George Washington and his troops camped in Bucks County as they prepared to cross the Delaware River to take Trenton, New Jersey, by surprise on the morning of December 26, 1776. Their successful attack on Britain's Hessian forces was a turning point in the American War of Independence. The town of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania and Washington Crossing Historic Park were named to commemorate the event.

• Lehigh County (northwest)
• Northampton County (north)
• Warren County, New Jersey (northeast)
• Hunterdon County, New Jersey (northeast)
• Mercer County, New Jersey (east)
• Burlington County, New Jersey (southeast)
• Philadelphia County (south)
• Montgomery County (west)

The 2013 population estimate of Bucks County was 626,976. This ranked the county fourth in the state, well behind (more than 10%) the counties of Philadelphia with 1,553,165 (247% of Bucks), Allegheny with 1,231,527 (196%), Montgomery with 812,376 (130%), and well ahead of Delaware with 561,973 (89.6%).[9]

Growth began in the early 1950s, when William Levitt chose Bucks County for his second "Levittown". Levitt bought hundreds of acres of woodlands and farmland, and constructed 17,000 homes and dozens of schools, parks, libraries, and shopping centers. By the time the project ended, the population of Levittown had swelled to almost 74,000 residents. At the time, only whites could buy homes. This rule however, was soon overturned. Other planned developments included Croydon and Fairless Hills. This rapid sprawl continued until the mid-1960s.

In the 1970s, a second growth spurt began. This time, developers took land in townships that were mostly untouched. These included Middletown Township, Lower Makefield Township, Northampton Township and Newtown Township. Tract housing, office complexes, shopping centers, and sprawling parking lots continued to move more and more towards Upper Bucks, swallowing horse farms, sprawling forests, and wetlands. At this time, the Oxford Valley Mall was constructed in Middletown, which would become the business nucleus of the county.

Growth has somewhat stabilized since the 1990s, with smaller increases and less development. However, the main reason for this is not a lack of population growth, but loss of land. Lower Bucks now lacks large parcels of land to develop. Smaller residential and commercial projects must now be constructed. However, redevelopment of existing building sites is now a leading coalition in Lower Bucks. Many areas along the Delaware River have surpluses of abandoned industry, so many municipalities have granted building rights to luxury housing developers. Also, as the regions that began the suburban boom in Bucks, such as Levittown, begin to reach their 50th anniversaries, many commercial strips and other neglected structures are being torn down to be replaced with new shopping plazas and commercial chains. Also, with rising property values, areas with older construction are undergoing a renaissance. At the same time, Central and Upper Bucks are still seeing rapid growth, with many municipalities doubling their populations.

Bucks County is home to a number of covered bridges, ten of which are still open to highway traffic and two others of which are situated in parks and open to non-vehicular traffic. Shown here is the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge over Neshaminy Creek in Tyler State Park.

New Hope Railroad in New Hope

Another important asset of the county is tourism. The county's northern regions, colloquially referred to as Upper Bucks, are known for their natural scenery, farmland, colonial history, and proximity to major urban areas, including Philadelphia, New York City, Allentown, Reading, and Atlantic City, each of which is within a two-hour radius.

Bucks County is home to twelve covered bridges. Ten are still open to vehicular traffic. Two other bridges, both located in parks, are open only to non-vehicular traffic. All Bucks County bridges use the Town truss design. The Schofield Ford Bridge, in Tyler State Park, was reconstructed in 1997 from the ground up after arsonists destroyed the original in 1991.[13]

Popular attractions in Bucks County include the shops and studios of New Hope, Peddler's Village (in Lahaska), Washington Crossing Historic Park, New Hope Railroad, Bucks County River Country and Bucks County Playhouse Theater (in New Hope). Rice's Market near Lahaska is a popular destination on Tuesday mornings. Quakertown Farmer's Market (locally called "Q-Mart") is a popular shopping destination on weekends. The county seat of Doylestown has the trifecta of concrete structures built by Henry Chapman Mercer, including the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, the Mercer Museum and Fonthill, Mercer's personal home.

Southern Bucks, colloquially referred to as Lower Bucks, is home to two important shopping malls, Neshaminy Mall, Oxford Valley Mall, and Sesame Place, a family theme park based on the Sesame Street television series. Also within Lower Bucks County is Parx Casino and Racing in Bensalem, a casino and thoroughbred horse racing track. The casino was built on the grounds of what was originally Philadelphia Park Racetrack. The complex includes the throughbred horse racing track, expansive casino, a dance club, numerous dining options, and the Xcite Center.

Map of Bucks County public school districts

• Bensalem Township School District
• Bristol Borough School District
• Bristol Township School District
• Centennial School District
• Central Bucks School District
• Council Rock School District
• Morrisville Borough School District
• Neshaminy School District
• New Hope-Solebury School District
• Palisades School District
• Pennridge School District
• Pennsbury School District
• Quakertown Community School District
• Souderton Area School District (also in Montgomery County)

The Bucks County public schools listed above are served by a regional educational service agency called the Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22 located in the county seat of Doylestown.

• Bucks County Montessori Charter School
• Center Student Learning Charter School
• School Lane Charter School

Many artists and writers based in New York City have called Bucks County home, settling mainly in the small stretch between Doylestown and New Hope and along the Delaware River. Notable residents have included Margaret Mead, Pearl S. Buck, Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim, Charlie Parker, Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, James Michener, Dorothy Parker, S. J. Perelman, Stan and Jan Berenstain, Daniel Garber, Alfred Bester, Annie Haslam, and Jean Toomer. Bucks County has been the home of writer/musician James McBride, writer Eric Knight, Academy Award-winning film composer Joe Renzetti, musician Gene Ween of Ween, painter Christopher Wajda, photographer Michael Barone, and furniture designer George Nakashima. James Gould Cozzens lived in Lambertville, New Jersey, just across the river from Bucks County, and used Doylestown as the model for the setting of two novels; he is considered a Bucks County artist. Allen Saalburg relocated to Bucks County in 1947, and named his press after the canal.[16]

The county boasts many local theater companies, including the long-established and recently reopened Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Town and Country Players in Buckingham, ActorsNET in Morrisville, and the Bristol Riverside Theatre, a professional Equity theater in Bristol. The Bucks County Symphony, founded in 1953, performs in Doylestown throughout the year and the Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society, founded in 2009, performs a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta with full orchestra each June.

The Wild River Review, an online magazine that publishes in-depth reporting, works of literature, art, visual art, reviews, interviews, and columns by and about contemporary artists, photographers, and writers, is based out of Doylestown.

The seemingly autobiographical novel The Fires of Spring by James Michener takes place in and around Doylestown.

Alecia Moore, more commonly known as Pink, was born in Doylestown, as was motion picture writer and director Stefan Avalos. Three American Idol contestants live in Bucks County: Justin Guarini, who was born in Atlanta, but moved to Bucks County; Jordan White, who was born in Cranford, New Jersey and moved to Bucks County; and Anthony Fedorov, who was born in Ukraine and was from Trevose, in Lower Southampton Township. Singer/actress Irene Molloy and classical tenor David Gordon were born in Doylestown. Musician Asher Roth was born in Morrisville. The Tony Award-winning Broadway play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is set in the county. The main members of the rock band Ween are from New Hope.[17]

• The 2019 film Colewell, starring Karen Allen, dedicated to Marguerite Addis a lifelong resident of Bucks County.
• The 2012 film Safe, starring Jason Statham, was filmed at the Parx Casino and Racing in Bensalem Township.[18]
• The 2012 film The Discoverers[19] was filmed in a variety of locations in Bucks County, including Croydon, Bristol, Newtown, New Hope, and Tyler State Park.[19][20]
• The 2010 NBC pilot episode for Outlaw was filmed in the Andalusia section of Bensalem Township.[21][22]
• Bucks County is mentioned multiple times on the 2010 Freeform TV series Pretty Little Liars.
• The 2009 film Law Abiding Citizen, starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx, was filmed partially in New Hope.[23]
• The county fair scene in the 2006 film Charlotte's Web was filmed at the Southampton Days Fair in Southampton.
• M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film Signs, starring Mel Gibson, was filmed and takes place in Bucks County. The town scenes were filmed on State Street in Newtown Borough, and the drugstore scene was filmed at Burns' Pharmacy on Pennsylvania Avenue in Morrisville. The house was built on farmland privately owned and leased to Delaware Valley College in Doylestown Township. A stage set for some interior shots was created in a warehouse on State Road in Bensalem Township. Shyamalan's film Lady in the Water was shot across the street from the Bloomsdale section of Bristol Township. In addition, Shyamalan's 2008 film, The Happening, was filmed in Upper Bucks County, including Plumsteadville.[24][25]
• Central Bucks High School West football team was followed during the 1999 season for the documentary The Last Game.[26]
• With the exception of the footage filmed in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, all of the 1998 film The Last Broadcast was shot in Bucks County.
• A short scene from Stephen King's The Stand, published in 1978, is based in Pipersville.
• The producer Fred Bauer, the director Steve Rash and composer Joseph Renzetti of The Buddy Holly Story, released in 1978, all live in Bucks County, where the film was conceived, and written by Bob Gittler.
• One of Steven Spielberg's earliest films, Something Evil, released in 1972, is set in Bucks County.
• The 1942 film George Washington Slept Here was set chiefly in Bucks County, although most of the filming took place in the studio.

The Bucks County Sharks rugby league team played in the AMNRL from 1997 to 2010 season.[27] They returned to play in the AMNRL in 2011, until the league's fold in 2014, when they subsequently joined the USARL.[28]

The county has a considerable history of producing Little League baseball contenders. Since its inception in 1947, four of the seven Pennsylvania teams to compete in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania have come from Bucks County: Morrisville (1955), Levittown American (1960 and 1961), and Council Rock-Newtown (2005). Two of these squads, Morrisville and Levittown (1960), went on to win the World Series title. In 2007, Council Rock Northampton won the PA State championship, and lost in the finals of regionals.

The county is a part of PIAA's District I, and has seen many schools capture multiple state titles.

In 1996, Yardley Western Post 317 won the American Legion National Championship.

Bristol Legion Post 382 recently won the 2011 American Legion State Championship.

• Parx Casino and Racing, formerly Philadelphia Park Racetrack and Keystone Racetrack, was the former home of Triple Crown contender Smarty Jones, is in Bensalem.

Neshaminy Creek in Tyler State Park

There are six Commonwealth-owned parks in Bucks County:

• Five are owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks, part of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
  • Delaware Canal State Park
  • Neshaminy State Park
  • Nockamixon State Park
  • Ralph Stover State Park
  • Tyler State Park
• Bucks County Parks and Recreation operates an 18-bed youth hostel in the Nockamixon State Park Weisel estate. The hostel is part of Hostelling International USA.[29]
• Washington Crossing Historic Park, a 500 acres (200 ha) site operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is part of Washington's Crossing, a U.S. National Historic Landmark area. The park is headquartered in the village of Washington Crossing located in Upper Makefield Township. It marks the location of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War.

Pennsbury Manor in Falls Township

• • Moravian Pottery and Tile Works
  • Stover-Myers Mill; Erwin Stover House
• Moland House an old stone farmhouse built around 1750 located in Warwick Township, and served as the headquarters for General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War from August 10, 1777, until August 23, 1777.
• Summerseat, also known as the George Clymer House and Thomas Barclay House, is a historic house museum in Morrisville, built about 1765. It is the only house known to have been owned by two signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers George Clymer and Robert Morris, and as a headquarters of General George Washington from December 8 to 14, 1776, prior to the attack on Trenton.
• Pennsbury Manor house and grounds, the American home of William Penn, founder and first Governor of Pennsylvania, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in association with The Pennsbury Society and are open to the public.[32]

• Bucks County Audubon Society's Honey Hollow Environmental Education Center
• Churchville Nature Center
• Peace Valley Nature Center
• Silver Lake Nature Center
• Clark Nature Center

• Public airports administered by the Bucks County Airport Authority
  • Doylestown Airport
  • Quakertown Airport, also a Civil Air Patrol facility
  • Van Sant Airport and Park, formerly owned and administered by the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation
• Private Airports
  • Pennridge Airport, owned by Pennridge Development Ent. Inc but open to public use for general aviation
  • Sterling Aviation Heliport, privately owned and public heliport and helicopter repair facility located in Croydon, PA next to Neshaminy State Park.

Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia and Delaware County is a nearby airport that has commercial airline service.[33]

• Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line runs through the southern portion of the county. Select daily Keystone Service trains in each direction stop at the Cornwells Heights station in Bensalem.
• SEPTA
  • City Division and Suburban Division bus routes across Southeastern Bucks
  • Regional Rail's Lansdale/Doylestown, Trenton, Warminster and West Trenton lines
• TMA Bucks's Rushbus – only parts of South and Central Bucks County
• Bucks County Transport or BCT – a paratransit and ridesharing service
  • Doylestown Dart provides public transportation around the Doylestown area.

• Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, chair, Democratic
• Robert "Bob" J. Harvie Jr., Vice Chair, Democratic
• Gene DiGirolamo, Republican

The current Bucks County Sheriff is Frederick "Fred" A. Harran.[40] Three members of the Sheriff's Office have died in the line of duty. One was shot and two others died in traffic accidents. The first, Sheriff Abram Kulp was murdered in February 1927.[41]

Census-designated places are geographical areas designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data. They are not actual jurisdictions under Pennsylvania law. Other unincorporated communities, such as villages, may be listed here as well.

• Tohickon, located under modern Lake Nockamixon

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Bucks County.[42]

† county seat

According to the Trewartha climate classification system, the Piedmont (United States) section of Bucks County, which is located roughly northwest of U.S. Route 1, has a Temperate Continental Climate with hot and slightly humid summers, cold winters and year-around precipitation (Dcao). Dcao climates are characterized by at least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ 32.0 °F (0 °C), four to seven months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50.0 °F (10 °C), at least one month with an average mean temperature ≥ 72.0 °F (22 °C) and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. According to the Köppen climate classification system, the climate is a hot-summer, wet all year, humid continental climate (Dfa). During the summer months in the Piedmont, episodes of extreme heat and humidity can occur with heat index values > 102 °F (39 °C). The average wettest month is July which corresponds with the annual peak in thunderstorm activity. During the winter months, episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values < −16 °F (−27 °C). The plant hardiness zone at Haycock Mountain, elevation 968 ft (295 m), is 6b with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of −4.6 °F (−20 °C).[43] The average seasonal (Nov-Apr) snowfall total is between 26 and 36 inches (66 and 91 centimetres) depending on elevation and distance from the Atlantic Ocean. The average snowiest month is February which correlates with the annual peak in nor'easter activity. Some areas of the Piedmont farther south and along the river below New Hope are in hardiness zone 7a, as is the Atlantic Coastal Plain region of Bucks.

According to the Trewartha climate classification system, the Atlantic coastal plain section of Bucks County, which is located roughly southeast of U.S. Route 1 has a Temperate Oceanic Climate with hot and slightly humid summers, cool winters and year-around precipitation (Doak). Doak climates are characterized by all months having an average mean temperature > 32.0 °F (0 °C), four to seven months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50.0 °F (10 °C), at least one month with an average mean temperature ≥ 72.0 °F (22 °C) and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. According to the Köppen climate classification, this region has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa). During the summer months in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, episodes of extreme heat and humidity can occur with heat index values > 110 °F (43 °C). The average wettest month is July which corresponds with the annual peak in thunderstorm activity. During the winter months, episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values < −7 °F (−22 °C). The plant hardiness zone in Andalusia, Bensalem Twp, elevation 16 ft (4.9 m), is 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 3.0 °F (−16 °C).[43] The average seasonal (Nov-Apr) snowfall total is between 24 and 26 inches (61 and 66 centimetres) depending on elevation and distance from the Atlantic Ocean. The average snowiest month is February which correlates with the annual peak in nor'easter activity.