NSHS Historic Newtown Square Day

10am-4pm Sat June 1

Our Community

by Doug Humes

Our 24th annual Historic Newtown Square Day is Saturday, June 1, 2019, with public sites open from 10am - 4pm. Tour the buildings that have been serving Newtown residents for the last 200 years: the 1711 Newtown Square Friends Meeting, the 1742 Square Tavern, the 1828 Paper Mill House & Museum, the 1842 Hood Octagonal School, the 1860 Bartram Bridge, and the 1895 Newtown Square Railroad Museum.

Come celebrate the history of one of William Penn’s first “new towns” in Pennsylvania. Our annual Historic Newtown Square Day includes tours of all of our historic buildings, the grand opening of the Benjamin West gallery at the 1742 Square Tavern, and a scale model of our proposed statue of Benjamin West. There will also be a special tour of the newly restored William Lewis house, other private homes, and a full day of colonial activities and re-enactors.

Display of artist Benjamin West materials inside Square Tavern

Benjamin West, Father of American Painting

Benjamin West (local artist Terry Jones) will be in residence at the Square Tavern, working on his latest painting, “William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians,” and talking about his boyhood spent at the Tavern, and his development as a painter. Terry has proposed sculpting a life-sized statue of the young West, and has created a scale version to show what he has proposed. We are kicking off the fund-raising necessary to bring Benjamin West back to his boyhood home, in a prominent spot outside the Tavern. Be sure to stop in and see the model and watch the master at work.

Step back to the 1700’s and visit the encampment of the 1st Continental Regiment, and Lenape Native American interpreters cooking traditional foods. Enjoy demonstrations in blacksmithing, sheep shearing, basket weaving, wool spinning, and beekeeping.

Observe traditional colonial crafts for children and enjoy period music with performer, historian and storyteller Robert Mouland. Inside the Square Tavern – our new Benjamin West Gallery – in place of the bare walls of the Tavern we now have an exhibition of prints of some of West’s most memorable works. Other activities will include an art exhibit, gift shop and period baked goods.

No tickets are required

The tours are free (other than the William Lewis House tour), but donations are welcome (donation boxes at the Tavern and Paper Mill House). A program book should be available at each site, with more history on each site. Guides will be available to answer questions.

For more information, visit

vwww.HistoricNewtownSquare.org

or call 610-975-0290.