Ivyland Borough

Ivyland is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It is known as one of the finest collections of Victorian Buildings in the state and most of it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The population was 492 at the 2000 census.

School District: Centennial

Homes for Sale in Ivyland

Neighborhoods in Ivyland Borough

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.3 square miles, all land, making it the smallest borough in Bucks County.

Ivyland Borough borders Warminster, Warwick , and Northampton Township.

History

This part of Bucks County is steeped in Colonial tradition. John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat, lived nearby. Congressman Robert Ramsey was born in Warminster Township. John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born and lived here.

General Washington had his headquarters in Hartsville in 1777; his army passed through on York Road several times and Washington stopped over at the Hartsville Inn on several occasions, traveling between Philadelphia and Coryell's Ferry (New Hope). The action of the Battle of Crooked Billet took place just south of the Borough; the territory of what is now Ivyland was part of the area covered by forces under the command of Brigadier General John Lacey Jr., of Bucks County, given the responsibility of preventing local supplies from reaching the British Army in Philadelphia.

Edwin Lacey was a relative of the Revolutionary War general and the son of Isaac and Ruth (nee Twining). Lacey was a tall, gaunt, red-headed bachelor, a Quaker, and a farmer. He was an abolitionist, a total abstainer from alcoholic liquors, tobacco, and profanity.

The Lacey family in America descended from William Lacey, who came from the Isle of Wight in the 1600's, and settled in Wrightstown, Bucks County where Lacey lived with his sister.

Early in the 1870's, Lacey sat talking in the farm house of his friend William Kirk, at the corner of Jacksonville and Kirk Roads. He remarked to Kirk that he had some money to invest, and was intrigued with the thought of making a profit on the forthcoming 1876 Centennial Exposition, to be held in Philadelphia. He foresaw thousands of visitors, and considered that a big hotel situated in the country a short distance outside the city, should attract overflow, transient travelers, as well as a goodly portion of those who wished to live outside the city during their visit. It would also serve as a stop for visitors coming to the Exposition by rail from New York.

Kirk pointed diagonally northward across Jacksonville Road, and remarked that there was the ideal location. The area was then in Warminster Township, and it consisted of 105 acres of land, part of a tract ceded by William Penn to Joseph Hart in 1719. In 1810 Joseph transferred it to Thomas Hart, from whom John Hart acquired it in 1840. In 1850 John willed the land to Joseph Hart. In 1859 it passed to Thomas Wynkoop who purchased it from the Hart estate.

In 1872, the year previous to the conversation between Kirk and Lacey, Isaac Parry had purchased the land from Thomas and Elizabeth Wynkoop. The plot pointed out by Kirk was the western portion of Parry's farm, just across Jacksonville Road. One advantage loomed large for Lacey – the plot bordered on the proposed extension of the North Penn Railroad, which had just extended its tracks from Glenside to Hatboro in 1872. There was talk of continuing three miles more to the Bristol Road, and eventually, on to New Hope.

On June 24, 1873 Lacey purchased 40 acres of land from Isaac Parry, roughly a square, on the western side of Parry's farm, extending from Jacksonville Road to the line of the proposed railroad. On this quadrangular plot Lacey planned his village, much as a modern developer might do – laying out streets, and establishing a type of zoning unusual for the time. Ivyland is probably the first regularly planned town in Bucks County!

Four broad streets were to run West from Jacksonville Road, these to be crossed by four streets running north and south. Lacey's friend Kirk questioned the unusual width of the planned streets, no doubt considering the extra ground thus utilized as wasted. But Lacey was visualizing a beautiful village, with, possibly, horse cars moving along the streets for transportation, a thriving town with, later, industries to solidify it.

The east-west streets Lacey named for public figures whom he admired. Wilson Avenue was named for Henry Wilson, noted abolitionist and war-time Senator, who had just been elected U.S. Vice President. Gough Avenue received its name for John B. Gough, the temperance lecturer. Lincoln memorialized the slain president. Chase Avenue was named for Salmon P. Chase, of the Lincoln cabinet, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The North-South street, Twining, was named after Lacey's mother, whose maiden name was Ruth Twining. Dubois was named for a personal friend of Lacey. A third was originally named Mason Avenue, probably for the fraternity of Freemasons, which was forming many lodges during this period – it was later changed to Pennsylvania Avenue. Greeley Avenue was named for Horace Greeley, the abolitionist editor of the New York Tribune, just defeated by Grant for the presidency. Lacey chose the name Ivyland for his dream village after the beautiful, glossy, three-leafed Ivy in which the area abounded; apparently he was no botanist, and did not realize it was Poison Ivy. Thomas MacKenzie, who knew the founder personally, stated that Lacey envisioned lovely ivy-covered walls throughout his town.

The first cellar was dug in August 1873 at 64 Lincoln Avenue; this was the first of his houses completed. The dwellings at 1090 Jacksonville Road, and at 133 Lincoln Avenue were built this year.

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