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Like my parents, I've never lived outside of Bucks County. We were close when, soon after my new bride and I were married, we moved to Sellersville to take an apartment. I was fortunate to grow up when Central Bucks County was still wide open.

My time as a young teen was spent working on the Paul G Myers farm across the street. We were up early and in bed early and never had time to just "hang out" in town. On the rare occasions we needed something in Doylestown we'd ride our bikes the 3 miles up Cold Spring Creamery Road, we'd usually see 4 or 5 cars on the trip. Between school, the farm and sports we had little free time and often that would be spent sledding at the Derstine sheep pasture in the winter or getting an automotive education at Cal's junk yard on the other side of the forest. Every Wednesday near 12:15 pm Buckingham's police force, Officer Shmegg, would drive up the road, we could almost set our watches to his passing.

In time we would end up in Edison where we've raised three children, none of who know any other home than this old stone farmhouse, the barn is in the back yard. They grew up without sidewalks and with the creeks and the island as their playground. The location is now and has always been a naturally beautiful spot at the intersection of the two creeks, the Borough Mill and Neshaminy. The Willow Grove Trolley passed by my front door until the 1930's, remnants of the trolley bridge still exist. Edison was an artist colony in the early 1900's with the Scumblers making the trolley trip from UPenn. Congressman, US Mint Curator and Dr Samuel Moore built up Edison as a commerce village in the early 1800's. Richard Saunder's made the Bridge Point his Ferry business as early as 1722. This house has seen three new elementary schools built in the village, all of which still exist.

We've lived here for 25 years and, with the help of the internet, have found some of the history of Edison. Years ago Edison was Bridgepoint and had a wonderful 7 arch stone bridge, it's gone, a toll house, it's gone, a mansion which was the Turks' Head Tavern it's gone, a thriving commerce, it's crippled. In their infinite wisdom the PennDOT [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] guys got the idea to rip right through the town and cut it in half with the Doylestown bypass. They called it progress. This eliminated the site of the toll house as it is now a 20 foot pile of fill for an exit, The Turk's Head Tavern was bulldozed over the hill, the commerce ended as cars would pass at 50-70 mph on a partially divided highway. The town lost much of it's history, many of it's homes and it's reason to exist as it was. It became a small community of transient people renting and just passing through. Few businesses survived, new businesses started and failed, it's a difficult spot to draw customers when they can't cross the divided road or just pass through at high speed. What was a thriving community became a rental village.

If Edison lost it's commerce with the bypass it lost it's soul with the destruction of the bridge. The whole reason Edison existed at all was the Bridge. A similar bridge to the Edison 7 arch bridge is the 8 arch bridge in Bridge Valley off of York Road some 3 miles away. It is still a great small mouth bass fishing area just downstream of the bridge. With the bridge gone Edison was at the mercy of whoever had the ability to drive it down, that was PennDOT. Despite a cheaper and quicker alternative following the Easton Road and crossing the Neshaminy 200 yards north and building the road bed through empty fields PennDOT ripped down many homes and destroyed the character and generally took all there was to take from the town. Doylestown got it's bypass of Main Street, Edison got it's main street obliterated with 5 lanes of concrete. The Turk section of Edison got 4 lanes of concrete as a front yard, only one is used at present, half as many as were used 100 years ago. Two steps forward by PennDOT, 4 steps back.

The bypass should have been a 4 lane parkway instead of being designed as an interstate highway replica behemoth, it would have followed the character of the area. PennDOT has to be fought tooth and nail, their rape and pillage policy is no longer accepted and they must now be a bunch smarter than they were in years past. They have recently begun to destroy the Great Swamp road between Penn's Park and Newtown, the expansion of the road is now inevitable. Nothing has destroyed the look and character of this area more than the PennDOT bypass.

With the history of the town behind us let it be known that the house I live in was quite interesting in it's construction. It was built originally as a 20 x 20 foot stone dwelling wth a kitchen in the cellar with a flagstone floor and fireplace and two foot thick walls. The ground floor was the living room, a small stairway led to the second floor where there were two bedrooms. In time an addition was put on which ended up more than doubling the size of the house. From replacing the roof we learned the original part of the house had 30" centers, the addition was on the 4' standard. With all the rafters exposed during the roof replacement it was amazing how well the builders lined up all the rafters. Despite being set in stone the peak did not vary 1/2" in height nor ridgeline.

The addition saw a new chestnut staircase (American chestnut is now extinct) a large living room, an abandonment of the kitchen in the cellar and space, twice the space. In time plumbing and electricity made an entrance as did a summer kitchen. Over time close to the house, a smokehouse was built and a small cottage, possibly used as a sharecropper's residence.

The history and timeline was there to be discovered and after putting all the clues together the house finally gave up a picture of it's history, but the date of origin is a bit more difficult. Finding a map noting the property with a dwelling on it is necessary to know the building was there. Searching a deed becomes entangled with other nearby homes as the "oak tree on the corner" has long since been turned back into earth. The earliest map we could find referring to that is 1876, we know it was there then, but need older maps to find out more.

I doubt the temporary, low density lumber, stucco housing being put up today by certain builders will be around in 50 years, much less 150 as the 1/4 acre lot is worth more than the dwelling. Their history will be more of "this used to be 200 houses of Seven Oaks, then was razed to be 700 townhouses of House Hill, but soon will be razed for a high rise condominium which will be known as God's County."

Time marches on, I understand that, but houses should be built to last, aesthetically appealing in their presentation to the area and blend with the area. Slash and burn and 'build cheap and run' developers are taking much out of the area and leaving us with little but eyesores. But, then PennDOT got the ball rolling with their slash and burn in 1968.

All in all, Edison has been a great place to call home, but we're ready to move. The school district is overcrowded and is so busy trying to cope with numbers they have lost their focus. Our last child will be in private school, just part of the penalty we are paying for ultradevelopment, so soon we'll be gone and this house will have new owners, as we've only borrowed It for a bit, and they will be left to discover the history of the area. For me it's been a great ride. But our trolley is about to find the end of the line.

Edison was a stop on the Willow Grove Trolley, which had a little something to do with its commercial success. The first trolley rolled through Edison about 2pm May 24th, 1898 and ran for about 34 years, until 1932. The last of those trolley tracks are located in Edison and die exactly where the bridge also died.

Chuck Rudy's Photos of Edison/Bridge Point, PA

The Scumblers

Art by Bob Richey, Pastel Landscape Artist