Edge Hill, the foundation of colonial Bucks County, provided stone for roads, homes, more

You can imagine the wonder when the first ships sailed up the Delaware River from the Atlantic in the mid-1600s. Those aboard viewed a heavily forested ridge closely edging the tidewater from the northern outskirts of Philadelphia to the future Morrisville. They called it Edge Hill. What they discovered on closer inspection was a range of interconnected hills, a wilderness landscape inhabited by wolves, bobcats, bears and snakes.

The colonists would discover under those hills metamorphic gray stones flecked with mica and other minerals. Volcanic pressure and heat created them in the era of dinosaurs. The stone could be quarried to build durable homes, businesses, roadways and much more. Rock pits soon popped up all along Edge Hill, providing the foundation of early Bucks County.

Though Edge Hill is meaningless to most people and has nearly vanished as a name, historians find traces amid the suburban sprawl. Here’s my Edgy 7:

Graystones, Morrisville. This is where Edge Hill emerges from the Delaware River as a volcanic flow 150 feet high. In 1929, the Bucks County Historical Society established a marker next to Graystones, its most prominent feature to mark the exact site of William Penn’s first land purchase from Native Americans in 1682. Before he arrived in the New World, Penn sent ahead British Army Capt. William Markham to buy from the Lenape tribe 130 square miles of property including Penn’s planned Pennsbury Manor estate. Markham met with tribal chiefs at Graystones to consummate the deal for Buckingham Shire (later Lower Bucks County). The document guaranteed rights to Lenape to live, farm and hunt in the shire.

5 Mile Woods, Lower Makefield. This is one place where Edge Hill persists on modern maps. Now a nature sanctuary, it offers hiking trails on 285 acres of preserved woodlands that once stretched through Fairless Hills into Bristol Township.

Holly Hill, Levittown. William Levitt’s revolutionary model for suburbia in the 1950s included four-lane Levittown Parkway that dramatically descends this steep hill, part of the Edge Hill range. The parkway connects heavily traveled Lincoln Highway with what was considered Levitt’s suburban downtown, the Levittown Shopping Center on Route 13.

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Langhorne Hill, Langhorne. This is the high point of the hill at 200 feet above sea level. The borough was important in colonial times as the nexus of two main roads, one linking Philadelphia to Trenton and the other Bristol to Newtown. The latter features a steep descent down Langhorne Hill draped by massive stone archways supporting railroads overhead. The famous “Battle of Langhorne Hill” was fought here in 1899 between the Pennsylvania Railroad and a street trolley line built below the arches alongside the road (today’s Route 413). The Pennsy claimed right-of-way and demolished the line with cranes from above, provoking a full-blown riot. The matter went to court. The trolley won.

Heartbreak Ridge, Middletown. Another well-known feature of Edge Hill is Heartbreak Ridge on the other side of Langhorne. Perched high above the Route 1 Superhighway, it’s the nickname for the football field at Neshaminy High School where rivals leave broken-hearted after losing to the home team.

Playwicki Farm, Lower Southampton. This municipal park on Edge Hill is on Route 213. It was once a prominent Lenape town the tribe sold to William Penn. A new landowner developed it into a farm and built a quarry to mine valuable building blocks. Hiking trails now lead past the quarry.

Growden Mansion, Trevose. It sits on a plateau of Edge Hill in Bensalem not far from Neshaminy Mall and is named for the family who created Bensalem Township after purchasing 10,000 acres from William Penn in 1683. Joseph Growden, a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, built the two-story mansion. Franklin is believed to have flown his famous kite at the estate.

Backtracking to Graystones, I stopped at the Langhorne Stone Company opposite Heartbreak Ridge. Friends Rose and Jackie told me how remarkable it is – a quarry where visitors can buy a vast array of landscape stones carved from the hill for garden beautification. It’s here you can load up on history: The stones of Edge Hill.

Sources include “Place Names in Bucks County” by George MacReynolds published in 1942.

Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Edge Hill was the foundation of colonial Bucks County