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Merrill Gardens started with one community in Seattle, Washington in 1993 and now has locations across the country offering independent living, assisted living, personal care and memory care. Through innovative programs and a determined commitment to quality, Merrill Gardens is one of the most respected senior living providers in the country. Some of the museum’s most fascinating collections are in the upper levels. One such item is the only surviving Franklin Stove made from Benjamin Franklin’s original design. Make sure you don’t miss it among the dozens of stoves and stove plates that are collected around the museum’s attic.
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Each of the museum’s first five floors contains individual rooms, each dedicated to a different industry. Some of them use tools that don’t look too different than what is used today, but there are also some very strange contraptions, such as those used for diving and whaling. Hogwarts feel aside, the Mercer Museum’s collection is one of the more unique in the state, featuring tools that were powered entirely by humans or animals. Interestingly enough, however, these items weren’t collected years after their use, but were often picked up while they were still contemporary machinery. The fact that the Mercer Museum is housed in a six-story concrete castle is strange enough, but the collection inside is so eccentric that the castle-like exterior almost seems fitting. In fact, stepping into the main hall, with machinery literally hanging off the walls and from the rafters, you would be excused from thinking that you had somehow walked into a set for a Harry Potter film.
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The castle contains built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles, made by Mercer at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The castle is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself. Fonthill is located north of the town center of Doylestown, on the west side of East Court Street, just south of the tile works. Its appearance is loosely based on European medieval castles, and has walls of concrete 2 feet (0.61 m) thick. The exterior is adorned by decorative tiles, the interior is furnished and decorated with Chapman's collections.
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This is quite evident even as you’re pulling up to the museum, as it’s housed in what appears to be a grand European castle. And, while it’s obviously not a European castle, the museum’s founder and designer, Henry Chapman Mercer, certainly intended it to resemble that. To say that the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is unlike any other historical society museum that I’ve visited is a bit of an understatement. In fact, the Mercer Museum might be unlike any museum I’ve ever visited, period.
Celebrate the season with festive tours at Fonthill Castle - The Bucks County Herald
Celebrate the season with festive tours at Fonthill Castle.
Posted: Thu, 05 Nov 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Fonthill (house)
Devastated, Mercer realized that he could not risk fire erasing his collected Americana before future generations could learn from them, and concrete was his answer. In addition to tools, it displays furnishings of early America, carriages, stove plates, a gallows, antique fire engines, a whaleboat, and the Lenape Stone. The Spruance Library, which houses the Bucks County Historical Society's archive of historical research materials, is located on its third floor. A window into Henry Mercer's unique architectural and artistic vision, this poured concrete estate is comprised of 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces and more than 200 windows.
Christmas is an ideal time to visit
Walking into the castle itself, you can’t help but notice the grand five-story atrium. Of the museum’s collection of 30,000 pieces, over 60% is on display, with many items still in the same layout that Mercer himself placed them over 80 years ago. Our first guide was fascinated by Mercer and his career, and she added lots of information about his travels and family background to her story. Our second guide was a lover of the architecture and tiles, pointing out many details that we might have otherwise overlooked. If there is an aspect of the site and history that particularly interests you, there is plenty of time for questions throughout the tour.
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On days with predicted excessive heat warnings, we will amend our tour routes of Fonthill Castle and aim to avoid areas with the most excessive heat fluctuations. Fonthill Castle tours may not be suitable for younger children under the age of 5, as tours last 60-minutes and may be challenging for the patience of toddlers. The ground floor of the Mercer Museum features a modern wing that is fully accessible and climate-controlled with a changing exhibit gallery, lecture space, museum shop, and restrooms. They are located one mile apart in the heart of Doylestown, PA, and you will need to buy a separate ticket for each. Also interesting in this area is the collection of Moravian tiles embedded in the walls.
During the holidays, there are daytime and evening tours, so you can appreciate the castle in different ways. We opted to take the last of the daytime tours, so there was still some light but we could fully appreciate the illuminated trees at the same time just before sunset. There is also a short video to watch that provides an overview about Mercer and the castle. Several displays showcase documents and photos of Fonthill’s construction, which are interesting if you want to know more details about the building.
Here are a few useful things to know about the castle and visiting Fonthill. The often mentioned haunting of Fonthill’s woods adds a bit of paranormal flair to an already eccentric establishment, though Mercer no doubt would have found it gauche to have the former housekeeper terrorizing his evening guests. On a cruise up the Ruhr in early adulthood, Mercer was impressed by the eclipse of artisanal culture by industrial production, and resolved himself to preserving artifacts of preindustrial life. The Bucks County Historical Society operates the Mercer Museum, the Research Library, and Fonthill Castle, the former home of the museum's founder, archeologist Henry Chapman Mercer. A special anniversary edition of the newsletter was produced in 2012 (Vol. 26 No. 2).
The welcome center, which was once the property’s garage, is just a few steps from the parking area. It’s best to arrive about minutes before the scheduled start of your tour to leave time to check in. Wealthy and curious, Mercer traveled the world for personal enjoyment and in his work as a collector, museum curator, and archaeologist. From England to Italy and beyond, his travels inspired the floor plan and details of Fonthill.
We particularly liked the decorative tiles at the tops of columns and crisscrossing the ceiling vaults. With 44 rooms, 32 stairwells, 18 fireplaces, and 21 chimneys, this home was built to stand out. Many of those spaces are covered in tiles that Mercer designed and made himself or collected from around the world. Tours at Fonthill are packed with information about the castle and its creative owner and builder, Henry Chapman Mercer. It’s one of our favorite sites in Bucks County, and we have visited the distinctive property several times to soak in all its artistry in different seasons.
The Mercers would host lavish dinner parties there, with guests like Groucho Marx, Isadora Duncan and the Von Trapp family. When the family passed away, the mansion fell into despair, until the 1980s when the Heritage Conservancy took over. Today, you can schedule a guided tour of the mansion, or, rent it out for your wedding. The National Historical Landmark and “working history” museum produces handmade tiles and mosaics in the same style of Mercer’s original designs. Guests can even watch artisans throughout the entire tile-making process. Adjacent to Fonthill, the Tile Works still produces the Moravian tiles seen throughout the house.
All tickets are non-refundable, non-transferable, and cannot be exchanged for a new date or time. Plan to arrive 10 minutes prior to your tour’s start time and check-in at the Fonthill Castle Welcome Center. Please read about each castle below to ensure you are selecting the correct one before you purchase your ticket.
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