New Hope is another Delaware River town that had its beginnings as a river port. Ferries and an early toll bridge provided connections to New Jersey and are marked by River, Ferry, and Bridge streets that reveal the shifting sequence of transportation systems from barge to ferry, to canal boat, railroad, and, finally, wagon and then automobile. The earliest settlement occurred beside the early-eighteenth-century ferry which in turn led to the establishment of the Ferry Inn, now the Logan Inn, at 10 W. Ferry Street. The largely Italianate building principally dates from the mid-nineteenth century and was refurbished in the 1970s. New Hope's location on the fall line of the first plateau of the Delaware River produced waterpower from several streams, making it an early water-powered industrial site. New Hope retains the small-scale buildings of its eighteenth-century origins with a handsome early-nineteenth-century brick hotel at the foot of the bridge. The severe brick building housing the Delaware Bridge Company offices at 24 W. Bridge Street overlooking the river was built in 1817 and enlarged in 1838.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.