What's The Difference Between Bridge Point and Edison?

In nice weather, I sometimes have a picnic lunch at Bridge Point Park along Neshaminy Creek in the village of Edison in Doylestown Township. What's the difference between Bridge Point and Edison? - A.B., Doylestown.

 

On an 1876 map of Doylestown Township, the village is shown as Bridge Point. On an 1891 map, the name is given as Bridge Point/Edison P.O.

Most historical accounts say the villlage was renamed to honor Thomas A. Edison, inventor of the first practical incandescent light bulb, when a post office was established about 1880.

The "Historic Village of Edison" sign, at Turk and Quarry roads next to the Edison Quarry, appears to cast doubt on the renaming. The text of the sign says Edison's bulb was first demonstrated in public at Christmas 1879, so "it is unlikely he would have been famous by 1880."

The History Guy believes the sign itself is in error.

Edison first gained fame in 1877 when he invented the phonograph. He was already well known when the light bulb was unveiled, so publicity about his latest invention could very well have prompted the naming of the post office. Furthermore, why would "Edison" have been chosen if not to honor the inventor?

Bridge Point got its name from a seven-arch stone bridge, built in 1800, which carried the main highway from Philadelphia to Doylestown across Neshaminy Creek at a point of land. According to George MacReynolds' classic "Place Names of Bucks County," the name Bridge Point may have originated even earlier, when a bridge was erected in 1764 at the same location. This was replaced by the 1800 span.

In 1808, Dr. Samuel Moore of Cumberland County, N.J. came to Bridge Point and bought the grist and oil mills. Moore built a woolen factory and sawmill, as well as stores and houses, including a mansion on a knoll overlooking the village.

A schoolhouse was built in 1818 along the creek, first serving as a private academy and then as a public school until 1882. In 1896, a brick schoolhouse was constructed at the north end of Edison on the Easton highway at Turk Road. That school, expanded in 1913, remained in use until 1936, when the township consolidated school (now ) opened on Turk Road.

From the late 1890s until the early 1930s, the Willow Grove-Doylestown trolley ran along the Easton highway and shared the same bridge across the creek. Because the bridge was at a sharp angle to the roadway, it was the scene of numerous motor vehicle accidents, particularly at night, as reported in the Doylestown Daily Intelligencer.

In 1938, the state rerouted the highway, by then designated Route 611, several hundred feet east of Edison on a new bridge across the Neshaminy. The old bridge stood unused for a number of years until it was torn down.

No longer on the main highway, Edison remained pretty much unchanged for the next four decades. Edison even had its own ZIP code in the 1960s, but lost that when the post office closed and residents were assigned Doylestown addresses.

In 1976, the Route 611 bypass was completed, separating the main part of the village from the section north of Turk Road.

Residents formed the Edison Village Association in 1991 and began seeking designation as a township historic district. Among the historic buildings still standing are the former Bridge Point Schoolhouse (now a private home), a former mill (now apartments) and the former general store and post office.

In the early 1990s, the township turned a tract on the creek side of Edison Road into Bridge Point Park and renovated a 19th century blacksmith/wheelwright shop that had been used for years as a public works garage. At the south end of the park is an abutment of the stone bridge and a short section of trolley track in the unused roadway.

Edison became the township's only state-certified historic district in 1997. The township established a Historical and Architectural Review Board to monitor any proposed major changes to buildings in the district.

Whether called Edison or Bridge Point, the village retains the aura of a country town despite being just steps from busy Route 611.