Fallsington Historic District - Fallsington, PA
N 40° 11.326 W 074° 49.127
18T E 515426 N 4448724
A 300-year-old quaker settlement, this village pre-dates other Friends historic districts by at least 50 years. Little known, and underrepresented in history books, it is one of the best existing examples of authentic pre-colonial life in America.
Waymark Code: WM6W82
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2009
Views: 3
This historic village is managed by its own community and towns people. Fallsington is a private, non-profit historic preservation organization. The center of town has a museum, called the Gillingham Store from 1910, which is in charge of maintaining, preserving and sharing this centuries old village since its incorporation in 1953.
The village, which consists of over 90 historic buildings from the 17th through 19th centuries, was significant as a religious, social and market center for the surrounding community, as well as a stop-over point for stagecoach travelers. William Penn attended Meeting for Worship here as well. There are three existing meetinghouses still in existence. One, called the Gambrel house, is now apartments, while the other two still stand, one serving its original intent, and the other a school (pre-school and kindergarten).
There are 6 jewels which highlight the historic district:
1. Moon-Willliamson Log House, an early settler's log house which is one of the oldest in the state still standing on its original site.
2. Burges-Lippincott House, a federal period house which boasts one of the most beautiful doorways in Bucks County. It was home of the village doctor in the 19th century
2. Stagecoach Tavern which operated as an inn from 1799 until Prohibition
3. Schoolmaster's House, constructed by the Falls Monthly Meeting of Friends in 1958 for its schoolmaster.
4. Gillingham Store, circa 1910 general store which houses Historic Fallsington, Inc.'s headquarters.
5. Gambrel Roof House, a 1728 stone meeting house which became a girl's boarding school in the 19th century and is now an apartment building.
Personal Narrative
I recently had the opportunity to visit this historic district, a town stuck in time as it were. I found this to be a very centralized location, small compared to other Quaker-influenced historic districts like Moorestown to Haddonfield, but significant nonetheless. Equally impressive was the architecture, especially of the Federal houses along Main Street. My favorite building was the log house which a resident told me is believed to be the oldest structure in the state. The entire tour, including picture taking, note-taking for a virtual geo-cache and walking up and down Main and yardley took a little over an hour. SO small is this historic town, there is no mention of it anywhere in the 1940 Pennsylvania America Guide Series.
Contrary to the official NRHP listings, the address (at least the one used by the historic district is
Historic Fallsington, Inc.,
4 Yardley Avenue
Fallsington, PA 19054
(215) 295-6567