Much has been written about the time when Newtown was the County Seat, a period that lasted from 1726-1813. During this period the town was bustling with activity centered around the Court, which drew people in from the far reaches of Bucks County. So far that the location would eventually be deemed inconvenient, and the courts moved to Doylestown. The development of the Court House grounds became the most important in Newtown history and promoted the growth of the village. However the memory of the County Seat in Newtown has mostly been lost to time. Although the seat of justice was removed 210 years ago, there are still remnants of these county buildings in Newtown today, if one knows where to look.
When the courts were moved to Doylestown in 1813, the Court House was repurposed. Newtown Friends, local Quakers led by famed preacher and artist Edward Hicks, first met in the disused building prior to the erection of their Meeting House on the opposite end of Court Street. From 1818 to 1824 it was used as a repository for the Newtown Library Company’s books, with their meetings being held in the Grand Jury room. In 1823 it became the arsenal for State muskets. The Newtown Academy started its life in the Court House under the direction of Reverend James Boyd. Early exhibitions of the Bucks County Agricultural Society were held in the Court House yard. Even after the removal of the county seat, the Court House remained the polling place for local elections. The building was put to good use in the following years until it's demolition.
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| 1796 Drawing of the Court House, Treasury and Jail |
Exactly when and why the Court House was demolished was not recorded. The latest activity we hear about takes place in 1827 when Samuel D. Ingham delivered an address in the Court House during the Agricultural Exhibition. Local historians Thaddeus S. Kenderdine and Josiah B. Smith don’t offer any insight as to the time frame of demolition, Kenderdine indicates that the time is not known. An article in the August 30, 1830 Bucks County Intelligencer helps to narrow it down:
Newtown: The seat of justice after it was removed from Bristol, continued at Newtown until the year 1810, when it was removed to Doylestown. The public buildings have been, within the past year, pulled down and two or three large mansion houses erected in their stead.
There are inaccuracies, such as the 1810 date and the fact that large mansion houses were not erected on the location of the former county buildings, however, it’s the only source of information as to when the buildings were demolished. In an Original Records Reviewed article from 1938, 20th century local historian Edward R. Barnsley writes it was not until the spring or summer of 1830 that the old Court House was town down. It is likely that the source of Barnsley’s information was the Intelligencer article. Beyond that, we find no mentions of the date of demolition.
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| The Court House Property in Newtown 1813 |
As to why the building was demolished, we have only one clue. An article in the April 26, 1873 Newtown Enterprise says:
It is stated that a similar accident occurred near the same spot about 60 years ago. It was contemplated to use the old court house as a manufactory of some kind, and efforts were made to excavate a cellar under it. In doing this the foundation was undermined, and a man named Benjamin Jolly was crushed. He lived about three weeks after the accident. After that the old Court House was torn down, and the frame house now owned and occupied by James Moore removed on its site.
No further information could be found on Benjamin Jolly, and the accident couldn’t have been 60 years prior, as the Court House was still standing in 1813. It is curious that many sources say that up until the 1921 renovations, one could see the heavy arch that supported the east chimney in the basement. If that were the case, a cellar always existed under the Court House, it wasn’t first excavated when Benjamin Jolly got crushed. Further research may shed light on this. The dimensions of the building standing today match the description of the size of the Court House precisely.
There’s also the question of who demolished the Court House. Silas Philips purchased the full tract of County buildings in 1829 with his wife Hannah. They sold the jail parcel in 1830 and the Court House parcel in 1832. The 1832 deed does not mention the County buildings. If the 1830 date is correct, Silas Philips was the owner of the buildings when they were torn down. An 1877 discovery that lends credence to this theory is that when demolishing the Samuel Philips (relation to Silas unknown) barn which stood on Washington Ave, a piece of a direction stone was found in the wall that had originally stood at the jail wall in Newtown. The direction stone showed the distance to Philadelphia as 24 Miles and 64 Perches and was dated 1767. Years later, in 1891, the second half of the stone was found when tearing down an old carriage house on the Heston property down State Street. If Silas and Samuel Philips were related somehow, it would make sense that they used the materials from the demolition of the court and jail to build a barn.
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| Milestone from Jail wall |
After the demolition of the Court House, a frame building was moved onto its foundations, and it remains there today. Exactly where the frame building stood prior to this is unknown. A few sources indicate it could’ve been on the corner of Court and Centre, where the second library building, later the Stuckert Building, now stands. Prior to the move, it was used as a carriage shop by Charles Craven and John S. Cornell. Josiah B. Smith writes that it was built by Joseph Briggs as a workshop for his hands. The original location, blocking the Court House from Court Street, seems unlikely, as one of the advantages of the location of the county buildings is their imposing line up facing Court Street. One would think it a bad place to erect a frame workshop, especially when the Court House was still standing.
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| Frame House on foundations of old Court House circa 1912 |
The frame house, often noted as standing on the original foundations of the Court House, had various uses. It was a furniture shop, carriage factory, dwelling and the Siloam Lodge, No. 256 I.O.O.F. was instituted upstairs in 1847. In 1921, local real estate broker Ada Reeder bought and converted the frame building into a side-by-side duplex. It was said that one could see the heavy arch in the basement that supported the east chimney of the old Court House. This chimney and any remnants of the arch were removed during Reeder’s renovations. Today, nothing remains of the Court House except the foundation walls and presumably the cellar. The old wooden sideboards of the frame building, which can be seen in a circa 1912 picture, are still extant under the asbestos siding of the current building. This is the only good existing picture of the house pre-1921 renovations. It can be seen in the background of some photographs of the second library building, which plainly show the east chimney.
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| Heilig House, 2nd library Building and Frame House showing chimney circa 1912 |
Next to the Court House stood the Treasury Building, also known as “Old Fire Proof”. The Treasury was built per an Act of Assembly passed March 21, 1772, "The Commissioners and Assessors with the approbation of the Justices and Grand Jury of the County of Bucks have at considerable expense lately erected in the town of Newtown, near the Court House, a strong commodious house, well secured from fire, accidents and evil minded persons, for the safe keeping and preserving the records and public papers of the county." The building served as was the office of the Prothonotary, Recorder & Register and the depository of the County records.
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| Old Fire-Proof |
The Treasury Building was built of stone, 12’ by 16’ on the inside, walls of well-dressed stone work, 2 feet thick. It was ceiled over with a brick arch, 12 inches thick. It was one story and covered with a wooden roof. The interior resembled a milk vault. It had three windows, with a very low doorway. The original door was made of iron, and the windows had iron gratings. The walls and arched roof inside were whitewashed, with no ornamentation. There was an open fireplace in the west end. It contained two fireproof vaults on one side and two offices on the other side. Heavy bards of iron ran from side to side near the ceiling, where the county records were stored.
Although it was touted as fire and burglar proof, the latter was proved wrong when the Treasury building was robbed by the infamous Doan gang on October 22, 1781.
In 1796, the treasury building was deemed too small to adequately serve the County’s needs, so a new, substantially larger, building was built across State Street, perfectly in line with the three other County buildings. This building still stands today, the most complete relic from the era. After its retirement, the old Treasury Building had multiple uses. It was a junk shop, town lockup, store room for rough goods such as iron and coal, dwelling house, the tailor shop of Benjamin Walton, work shop, horse stable, sheriff’s office and a warehouse. What a versatile little building it was.
In May of 1856, the Bucks County Intelligencer was given a tour of the Treasury Building by then owner Joshua Woolston. It noted If the roof is renewed from time to time, this building will stand for centuries to come, the walls being as sound and firm as the day they were erected. Less than 20 years later, a man would come to town and tear the old building down.
The third County Building was the jail, of which there were two in Newtown. Up until 1745, the jail was located near present day 27 S. State Street. It proved to be too small for the growing criminality of Bucks County, so a new jail and jailer’s house was erected directly east of the Treasury Building, in a line with that and the Court House. The gable end was flush with the pavement of State Street. The original jail was kept as a work house for the prisoners. The new jail stood at the present 35 S. State Street and parts of it remain to this day.
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| 35 S. State St - much more of the jail wall is visible |
In 1915 local historian Thaddeus S. Kenderdine noted that the walls of the jail and the jailer’s house were practically intact, and that the principal part of this building was the prison and jailer's house and office. Other historians made note of this as well. Josiah B. Smith wrote
Directly west of the treasury building was the jailer’s house and jail or “gaol,” as it is called on the ancient plan before me. The main part of the building having been used as the subsequent dwelling makes the matter of interest, the general impression being that they were demolished with the court house and treasurer’s vault. Instead of this the east end of the present dwelling is as it was-then the jailer’s office and a part of his rather contracted residence, next the jail, the two making an L 33x20 feet, extending east from the main building 33x33 , abutting directly on the pavement. The east end shows plainly its 170 years of existence, while the cellar of the jail end has plain evidence of its uses for the more refractory of those who were “cabined, cribbed, confined,” in the strenuous way of the times.
The east wing of the house was the jail office. In a paper read before the Bucks County Historical Society titled The Early Courthouses of Bucks County, Mary T. Hillborn notes
The kitchen of the house, on what is generally called the Heilig property, now owned by Horace G. Reeder, was the office and the barroom of the jail, where everybody in and out of confinement could get rum, if they had the money to pay for it. Under this room were several cells…
Mary is undoubtedly speaking of the time of jailer Patrick "Paddy" Hunter, who kept a bar and sold rum while in office. This is supported by historian Josiah B. Smith. Paddy was a hard case, and while he was jailer it was as difficult to keep prisoners in jail at Newtown as it is now at Doylestown.
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| Heilig House Postcard |
Daniel B. Heilig purchased 35 S. State Street in 1873 from the estate of Dr. M. P. Linton. Shortly afterward, he purchased the Treasury Building from James Moore, a blacksmith who lived in the house on the foundations of the old Court House. Heilig owned the property less than two months before he commenced tearing down the quaint old building. Old Fire-Proof had its revenge though, as Heilig’s arm was badly crushed when trying to pry apart the heavy arch on his own. It is said that Heilig used the materials to build a one-story watch and jewelry shop. This is presumably 33 S. State Street, though the building is mostly brick which is curious. He had intentions of demolishing this building for a larger structure, but he died before the project got underway. Heilig was a busy man about town in the decade he lived in Newtown, erecting several storefronts on State Street adjoining his residence. However, he removed an important part of Newtown's history for the sake of one squatty-looking store.
Heilig made many improvements to his properties during his tenure in town, which included the three lots to the north of his residence. Articles in the Newtown Enterprise mention him coming across the old prison well while digging a foundation, finding the foundation of the old prison wall, and finding rare old coins and an ancient cannon ball while excavating a cellar. When he tore down the Treasury building a stone with the name H. Rockhill carved in it was found in the south wall of the structure, noted the Bucks County Intelligencer in its coverage of the demolition. In 1880 he discovered the cellar and foundation of the first jail, fourteen feet square, though no interesting relics were recovered in the process. The town was interested in these historical finds, as evidenced by the amount of newspaper coverage that they were given.
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| Daniel B. Heilig's Storefronts |
By 1873 little remained of the original County buildings. The western jail yard wall, parts of which still ran along State Street in front of Heilig’s house, is still there today. A large portion of the Heilig House itself was formerly the jailer’s house, and the basement was said to contain remnants of the cells that previously housed prisoners. At this point, the frame house on the Court House foundations still retained the heavy arch that had supported the east fireplace.
Today, there is nothing left of the Treasury building, except the materials possibly used to build 33 S. State Street. Excavations at the site in 2023 uncovered traces of the foundation of the building, and metal detecting in the area has produced some colonial era items including bale seals, today's equivalent of a merchandise tag. A visit to the Jailer's house showed signs of the original structure in the basement, though no obvious cells were evident as Josiah B. Smith had intimated. A visit to the cellar of 27 S. State Street, the location of the first jail, proved interesting in that there were odd small hollows cut out on opposing sides of the walls. Further investigation is warranted.
In 1920 William R. Stuckert owned the Heilig house and the frame house and intended to demolish both structures to erect a moving picture gallery and garage. Luckily, this plan never materialized or the center of town would look much different today.
More remains of the County buildings than people realize when they walk past the old jail wall in front of the Heilig house. More than two hundred years ago, the county's criminals were housed right next to where one shops for clothing today. Many stories have been told from within those walls, some of which luckily still exist. The 1796 Treasury building is still standing directly across the street from the Heilig house.
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| New Treasury Building - 1796 |
The principal information in this comes from a few sources. Historian Josiah B. Smith's scrapbooks at the Bucks County Historical Society provide insight into the situation with the County buildings during his lifetime. Thaddeus S. Kenderdine's 1915 pamphlet When Newtown Was The County Seat expands upon Josiah B. Smith's research. It delves further into the subject, giving a good glimpse of the state of the buildings during that year, and taking a more lighthearted approach that borders on absurdism. The Newtown Enterprise, especially during the 1870s, often wrote about the old County buildings. These sources have proved very helpful in understanding the past and present configurations of the buildings. Edward R. Barnsley didn't seem particularly interested in the subject. His plans for a book about when Newtown was the County seat were uncovered, but it never materialized and it doesn't appear as though the research was completed.
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