Last Surviving Bucks Co. Octagonal Schoolhouse Open To The Public

WRIGHTSTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA ? The historic Octagonal Schoolhouse at Swamp Road and Second Street Pike will be open to the public on Sunday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 5 p.m. Parking is located off of Second Street Pike from the north bound lane.

In operation from 1802 to 1850, the building is the only remaining Octagonal Schoolhouse in Bucks County. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The open house will feature a special exhibit by Bucks County Recorder of Deeds Dan McPhillips who will be speaking about and showing restored deed books highlighting two major events in Wrightstown's long, rich history - its first settlers and the establishment of the original Octagonal Schoolhouse.

John and Jane Chapman?s 1684 land patent marks the arrival of Wrightstown?s first English settlers who were Quakers escaping religious persecution. In June 1684 the Chapmans and their three young children crossed the Atlantic on the ship Shield.

The Chapman?s 500-acre purchase in October made them major landowners, and they became active in township and county affairs. The family helped establish Wrightstown Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers), and among their many descendants was Henry Chapman Mercer, founder of the Mercer Museum, Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, and Fonthill in Doylestown.

Bucks County deeds also record the Octagonal School?s 1802 founding in a 99-year lease of the schoolhouse lot. In that year, Wrightstown farmer Joseph Burson, ?in consideration of having a school kept for the benefit and advantage of himself and others of the neighborhood,? leased 34 perches (about 12,500 square feet) of land at the corner of his property to trustees of the proposed school. The historic eight-sided stone structure served its original purpose for half a century, and is Bucks County?s only remaining octagonal schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse, which is maintained by the Wrightstown Historical Commission, will be open free of charge on Sunday.