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2A I WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 | COURIER TIMESLevittown’s Bolton Mansion in new fightBolton Mansion in Bristol Township which originally was Buckingham Township and rejected by residents who preferred Bristol Township, carlLAVO/PHOTOJOURN ALISTJD MullaneColumnistUSA TODAY NETWORK - ATLANTICFor 335 years, Bolton Mansion has survived wars, storms, and the incredible transformation of Lower Bucks from farmland to “the new city as Levittown was called. Now it’s in a fight with vandals, who break its doors, tear its shutters and even break its hardware, forged by local blacksmiths in the 18 th century.Dave Newman, house manager and member of the preservation group, Friends of Bolton Mansion, said vandalism is chronic.“This has been going on for a few years. All sorts of damage,” he said.Vandals busted a couple of period doors to get inside, and they had to be replaced. Sounds simple, but since Bolton Mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s complicated. Things must be replaced to period architectural standards.You can’t run over to Home Depot and get a couple replacement doors. First, a historic restoration company has to come in and inspect things.“What they have to do is find, and then use, reclaimed wood from that time period and rebuild those doors. As you might imagine, it costs a bit more to do that kind of repair,” he said.Old shutters have been bent back and damaged by vandals trying to get inside, breaking hardware that had survived since the 18th century.“Those are very hard to replace, and expensive,” Newman said.An access ramp for the disabled was upended and wrecked.“We have the video of kids just coming up, turning it over and for no reason,” Newman said.Surveillance cameras surround the building, the Friends of Bolton Mansion are reluctant to post them to social media. It’s a touchy subject, Newman said, ratting out neighbors’ kids.“We just don’t feel comfortable with that,” he said. “We try to maintain a really good relationship with our neighbors. We do a lot of events there for fundraising, and we know they are very patient with us.”The mansion holds a unique position in its Holly Hill neighborhood. It sits on a gentle rise, overlooking a sea of Levittown houses. The property is wide open, and anyone can approach the place.“It’s always been this way and we wouldn’t want to close it off with a fence. I mean, other places like Three Arches (in nearby Falls) have a fence. But since the mansion has always been open. Sledding is a huge part of Bolton Mansion, too.”Surrounding it with a security fence would effectively eliminate Levittown’sgreatest sledding hill.“A fence would be expensive. It’s not even on the table for discussion. That would be aboard and membership decision,” Newman said.There is a tenant who rents an apartment in the building, but even that doesn’t prevent vandals.“Anyone who has lived there is passionate about that building, but there’s only so much one person can do. It’s a big property,” Newman said.One of the problems is that vandalism, along with the usual maintenance work on the old building has been made more difficult during the last two years, mainly because of the pandemic.The usual fundraisers have largely been put on ice. So Newman has personally done patch work, to windows, doors, and the front stone steps. But vandals even attacked the steps recently, chipping out mortar between the stones.“I just go over and do a temporary patch, mortar, or plywood, until we canfundraise to get the work done,” he said.“Right now,” Newman said, “we just need to reach out to our neighbors, and get a little help from them, to keep an eye on the mansion. If they know their children are going to the mansion to hang out, fine, as long as they respect the building.The mansion dates to 1687 when Phineas Pemberton purchased 500 acres and built the house. It was named “Bolton Farm” for the family’s ancestral English town, Bouton, England.The Morris family owned it the longest, and the place was a dairy farm for years until the family sold it in 1938. The University of Pennsylvania used it as a veterinary school and hospital. U.S. Steel used it for offices as it built the Fairiess Works in the early 1950s, followed by Levitt and Sons, which also used it for offices, turning it over to the township as offices.It was saved from demolition in the 1970s, and is preserved by Friends of Bolton Mansion.It’s a labor of love for Friends, and that anyone would vandalize the property for no reason is puzzling, to the point of disbelief.“You know, a couple years ago we were up on the side of the building, just a bunch of us, just chatting,” Newman said. “And some guy in a truck drove up on the property, did doughnuts all the way up the lawn, around a tree, then down the driveway. And then he flipped us off as he went by. Why would you do that?”Don’t know. But to that truck, on behalf of Levittowners who love that place, back at ya, pal.If you’d like to donate to repairs for Bolton Mansioni, please go to https:// boltonmansion.org/ which is the web site of Friends of Bolton Mansion.Columnist JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmul-lane@couriertimes.com
Newspaper Details
Bucks County Courier Times
Levittown, Pennsylvania, US
Wed, Feb 09, 2022
Page 2
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Margaret R.
PA, USA 18 Apr 2022
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