Mary Doyle Roth

Warrington Revisited Mary Doyle Roth

At the time of Warrington Township's founding in 1734, few landowners lived on Bucks County's fertile soil. The history of the township is one of gradual growth and development. From unbroken wilderness grew small clusters of families forming villages. Warrington consisted of four villages: Warrington, Neshaminy, Pleasantville, and Tradesville. In the mid-1800s, the township's landscape was made up of family farms, with agriculture as the main industry. In the late 1920s, the first small housing developments were built. By the early 1960s, larger housing developments and shopping centers had replaced many farms. Once lined with lush fields of crops and trees, the Doylestown-Willow Grove Turnpike/Easton Road/Route 611 has seen the most change throughout time. Historically significant families, including the Barnesses, Coggiolas, Cornells, Craigs, Holberts, Leventhals, Mayers, Pauls, Penroses, Wileys, and Worthingtons, created well-known businesses along this road on which they lived. Today, this thoroughfare has little historic substance to offer its current residents.