Penns Park Historic District

Penns Park is a village of 36 major buildings at the crossroads of 2nd Street Pike and Penns Park road in Wrightstown Township, Bucks County. Most of its buildings date from between 1800 and 1899. The standard building is a two-and-a-half-story frame or local stone residence with a gable roof, and the village has almost no brick or ornamental work. The village was the township's main commercial center until the North Pennsylvania Railroad opened in 1890 and drew business to Wycombe. Its residents included a strong Methodist congregation, one of the county's first, which had a major role in its development. Penns Park developed around a townstead William Penn planned to remain an open park for all Wrightstown residents, which gave the village its name. Because growth slowed after the railroad and trolley bypassed it, the village kept its nineteenth century character and integrity. Its uniform scale and building techniques make it a rare surviving example of a small rural village of this period.