Canal-side House Pre-dates the Canal

New Hope Historical Society archives volunteers recently met with Ernie Bowman at the historic home he shares with his wife Dee Dee at 116 New Street. This home is the south side of a stone double house that was built facing east over 200 years ago, before the construction of the Delaware Canal which now borders the home in its backyard. After the canal was built and New Street was constructed the front door was changed to the west side of the house facing New Street. Due to the slope of the land towards the canal, the original second floor became the first floor entering from New Street. The original first floor was transformed into an above-ground basement with an outdoor entrance facing the canal. Ernie Bowman believes prior to the canal being built by 1834, that the future towpath near the house may have been used as a carriage path.


New Hope Historical Society archives files indicate the house was likely built by Joshua Vansant. When Ernie and Dee Dee purchased the home in 1982, much of the original woodwork inside the home was intact and to this day has never been significantly altered. Although the 1983 nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places for the “New Hope Village District” lists the house as being built in 1805, during renovations of the now basement level, a penny from 1817 was discovered under the floor, perhaps indicating that as the date of construction.

New Hope Historical Society member Ann Niessen did extensive research from about 1977 to 1981, populating both the National Register nomination form for “New Hope Village” and the current New Hope Historical Society archives. There she writes that the double house was part of the Joshua Vansant plantation. She adds that Vansant acquired the 95 acres from his father-in-law Joseph Wilkinson in 1798. In 1823 Vansant bequeathed all of his holdings to his daughter, Mary. In 1834 Mary bequeathed all of her holdings to her husband, Lewis Slate Coryell, a descendant of the Coryells for whom New Hope was once named. Prior articles in the Beyond the Door series have mentioned this colorful character who had many real estate holdings in New Hope and who served as the Confederacy-sympathizing New Hope burgess (mayor) at the time of the Civil War. Ann Niessen adds that because this home is fieldstone, “indications are quite strong that it was built by Joshua Vansant just at the turn of the 19th century. The earliest atlas on which subject structure appears is the 1850 Rogerson & Murphy Survey Map.”


A photo from the 1920s shows a hose raised to the roof where damage from a fire can be seen. Also seen is an array of beehives situated between the house and the canal. The likely original arched dormers are seen in the photo. Subsequently, the dormers were changed to the pedimented gable dormers seen in the photo that leads this article.

The house passed through multiple owners over two centuries, and the owner from 1960 to 1981 used a portion of the home as a beauty parlor as well as a chair caning establishment. Ernie Bowman states that it reached a sheriff sale in 1981 selling for less than $1000 prior to it being acquired by him and his wife for considerably more. They then moved the kitchen from the cellar level to the street level into the room once used as the beauty parlor. They discovered shutters in the attic and had them rehung. Basement renovations exposed an existing fireplace, bringing the number of fireplaces in the home to four. On the level just above street level, they converted one of the original three bedrooms to a bathroom. In the attic, there is an additional bedroom and bathroom.

Fireplace exposed in the original kitchen area on the lowest level of the house.

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Beyond Boundaries

Fireplace exposed in the original kitchen area on the lowest level of the house.

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Architecturally each side of the double house is an approximate mirror image of the other. Georgian-style features are evident. A late 19th-century open wood porch spans the complete width of the double house on the New Street side. Pedimented dormers on the attic level were likely added in the mid-19th century per Ann Niessen’s research. On the canal side at the east (rear) elevation, there is a two-story, sloped roof, one-room deep clapboard addition.


Both current owners, Ernie, and Dee Dee Bowman, served on the New Hope Historical Society board in the past, with Ernie managing Parry Mansion maintenance and repairs and Dee Dee serving as president. Many thanks to them for their prior service and for sharing their historic home with us.

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

 

Michele Gunnells

Tom Lyon

Sandie Mines

David Newhart

Tom Williams

Beyond The Door

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. 

New Hope Arts

May 28, 2024
2 Stockton Avenue, at the corner of Stockton Avenue and Bridge Streets, has been the site of multiple enterprises over more than two centuries. Most recently it has been owned and occupied by New Hope Arts, Inc. and their tenants. Volunteers from the New Hope Historical Society recently met with Joyce Worthington Homan, whose grandfather, father, and uncle were the owners of the property from about 1920-1968. We also met with and toured the property with the current executive director of New Hope Arts, Christine Ramirez. We explored both the current use of the location as well as its historical uses. New Hope Historical Society (NHHS) archives were also used in preparation of this article. The earliest NHHS files show a 1799 title transfer from John Beaumont to Eli Doan. One online source states Eli Doan was a descendant of the infamous Doan family. The Doan Boys had been known as the “outlaws and loyalists” during the Revolutionary War. At this writing, Eli Doan’s connection to that family is not known to be otherwise documented. By 1830, title transfers mention a dwelling at this location. Within a few years of that the Delaware Canal was constructed just east of the property. By 1844 a title transfer from Hiram Ely to Britton Ely mentions 'stone house, frame kitchen, soap factory and stable.'” NHHS files contain a 1977 architectural description of the building as being built between 1850-1880 as a factory shop and foundry, with the construction being sandplaster over brick. By 1850 the property was owned by Charles B. Knowles, husband of Margaret Parry who was the daughter of Parry Mansion and New Hope Flour Mill owner Benjamin Parry. It presumably continued as a soap factory under Knowles's ownership as an 1865 title transfer to a new owner mentions that enterprise. By 1869 it was being used as a blacksmith shop and storehouse, and by 1906 it was a machine shop when John W. Kooker bought the property and began its use as a sausage factory. Sausage was easily shipped to markets in Philadelphia along either the Delaware Canal on the east side of the building, or the railroad on the west side.
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