I went to a New Hope Historical Society celebration yesterday, for the birthday of Benjamin Parry, the original owner of the 18th c. mansion in which the Historical Society resides. I had a tour of this lovely historic home, with lots of family and local lore explained by the docent, and I’d recommend Parry Mansion to anyone visiting the area – or to locals, if you live in Bucks County and would like to know how the art-and-culture colony of New Hope started as a milltown and agricultural hub.
This is the place where two authors (now friends) and I launched our children’s book, Let’s Visit New Hope, a year ago. There was a packed crowd of Historical Society members in the downstairs of the mansion, and past president Roy Ziegler gave a brief but delightful summary of the contributions that Ben Parry made to the town and the commerce of the Philadelphia area – and then we all sang Happy Birthday Dear Ben, and there was cake. Really delicious cake, with raspberry cream filling, from C’est la Vie bakery in New Hope.
This afternoon before the party I painted a quick birthday card for Ben, which everyone signed at the party – happy to bring the venerable gent back to life, after he acted as tour guide for Let’s Visit New Hope a year ago.
