Dublin Borough

Dublin is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,083 at the 2000 census. Dublin is part of Pennridge School District.

School District: Pennridge

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Location of Dublin Borough in Bucks County, Pa

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.4 km²), all of it land.

Dublin extendeds along a stretch of Route 313 which connects the much larger towns of Doylestown and Quakertown. Almost the entire town can be viewed from 313 with only a few streets diverging from the main road. The town is surrounded by sparse housing developments and a series of dairy farms and nurseries, all of which are part of Hilltown Township and Bedminster Township. Dublin contains a small shopping center, a Department of Motor Vehicles Center, a pharmacy and 5 restaurants. Several rows of old houses line 313, some of which date back to the late 1700s. The majority of Dublin's population lives in several developments around the main part of town. Dublin has its own municipal government and maintains a fire station. Dublin has its own local police department and relies on Pennsylvania State Police when not on duty.

History

The year was 1912. William Howard Taft was president, and New Mexico and Arizona became the 47th and 48th states. The British steamer Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. There was no federal income tax. And in September of that year, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the Borough of Dublin was born. If the group of freeholders who petitioned the courts for incorporation as a borough were to return today, they would probably recognize very little of the Dublin they once knew.

But that's getting ahead of the story, because although the history of Dublin Borough goes back just 75 years, the makings of the town took root many, many years before. As early as 1681 speculators (we might call them developers today) held land in the area and were in the business of selling off small lots of as few as two acres each along Swamp Road (Dublin Pike). This practice eventually led to the development of a village that would become the largest of several such villages in Bedminster Township.

Even back then the settlers, many of them of Scotch-Irish descent, seemed to have their priorities in order. In the early 1760s, the first log tavern was erected at the village's main crossroads by Robert Robinson on the site of the present Dublin Inn. Robinson was a farmer whose 75 acres represented one of the larger farms in the vicinity. He later served as a captain in the Bedminster Militia that fought in the American Revolution. A lot of people believe that Robinson's tavern figured prominently in the naming of Dublin. The story has it that after Robinson built his tavern, a second tavern was erected next to the first by a competitor. Later, the two establishments came under single ownership and the two buildings were joined, making a "double inn." Thus, the village gradually came to be called Double Inn and then Dublin - or so the tale is told. However, more than one historian dismisses the "double inn" legend as pure fiction. In "Place Names in Bucks County, Pennsylvania," author George MacReynolds says records show that "the village was never called Double Inn" and that even the existence of the so-called double tavern was merely the product of someone's vivid imagination. Pauline Cassel, in her "History of Bedminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania", calls the double inn story a myth, noting that the only thing double about Robinson's tavern was a double wall between the inn and the house.
More likely, the two authors say, the settlers chose the name of the village to remind them of their homeland. His version is not nearly as amusing as the double inn, but probably closer to the truth.

Around the time of the Revolutionary War a gang of Tory outlaws led by the Doan brothers of Plumstead Township was active throughout Bucks County. One of the band's most daring exploits was the robbery of no fewer than six dwellings in the vicinity of Dublin on the night of July 21, 1783. The robbers' last stop that night was the Robinson tavern, where the boys got carried away with their celebration and awakened the neighbors. The Doans fled but one of the brothers, Joseph, was followed and captured, only to escape later from a jail in Newtown. Shortly after Joseph's capture Moses Doan, leader of the outlaws, was surrounded and shot to death at a remote cabin on the Tohickon Creek.

In 1832 residents made their first attempt to have Dublin declared a separate township. The petition to the court asked that the new township be created from parts of surrounding Hilltown. Bedminster and Plumstead. The effort tailed - as did a second attempt in 1841, which included not only the three townships of the first petition but part of New Britain Township as well. Incorporation as a borough finally came on September 3, 1912 - Dublin being created from parts of Hilltown and Bedminster. Not without controversy, however. As today's borough officials and residents can attest, nothing ever comes too easily in Dublin. Things were no different in 1912. Those favoring incorporation said a borough could provide better schools, roads and sidewalks, a separate polling place nearby and an improved climate for building and development. Those who opposed the idea of a borough claimed the roads were good, the sidewalks fair and the schools better than they had been in 30 years. They objected to autonomy because they felt it would mean increased taxation without adequate return.

We know the eventual outcome. And as a borough, Dublin has grown. A sewerage system was installed in 1966. Four years later, the two industrial firms that had paid the lion's share of the expenses for the sewers - Kollsman Motors Corp. with 600 employees and Dublin Pants Co. with 300 - were gone. Dublin needed new blood, and officials were forced to change the zoning ordinance to permit a number of apartment complexes that eventually more than doubled the population.

Between 1970 and 1980 the town went from 657 to 1,441 inhabitants, an increase of 119 percent - the sharpest growth rate of any municipality in Bucks County. A public water system went on line several years ago to service the Dublin Village Greene Development, the most recent residential addition. A shopping center opened in 1982. Traffic increased. Water became an occasionally scarce commodity. As proponents of incorporation had hoped, Dublin had expanded and in many ways prospered - but not without its share of growing pains.

Yet none of Dublin's concerns in 1987 is totally unfamiliar. Over the years, the borough has had to tackle the same problems as today, albeit on a smaller scale. But despite the problems old and new, Dublin continues to offer a lot of good things to residents. The borough has been part of the excellent Pennridge School District for more than 45 years. The volunteer fire company, serving faithfully since 1915, is one of the best in the area. Many small businesses, and new families have found a home here, finding out for themselves what older residents have known for a long time - that Dublin is just a nice place to live.

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