Morrisville Borough
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Morrisville Borough municipal offices are located at 35 Union Street, Morrisville PA 19067; phone: 215-295-8181. Morrisville Borough was incorporated in 1804. It's significance precedes this date in areas of both industry and politics. Robert Morris speculated in land and buildings and planned to convince Congress to "site" the Nation's Capitol at the "Falls of the Delaware." To this task he invested prodigious energies, enlisted a considerable number of supporters, and almost succeeded. Located directly across the Delaware River from New Jersey's state capitol, Trenton, Morrisville occupies a strategic location near the center of the Boston-Washington D.C. corridor. Easy access to rail (SEPTA, NJ Transit & Amtrak) and highways (US 1, I-95, & NJ Turnpike) makes for convenient commuting to New York City, Princeton, Philadelphia, and points inbetween. Borough homes consist primarily of detached single family residences and twins (semi-detached). There is one significant townhome subdivision, Cambridge Estates (sometimes known as Cambridge Crossing). Homes for sale are typically from the early 1800s with some constructed as late as the 1990s. Most of the homes were built from the 1920s through the 1950s. Morrisville is home to one of two boro-centric public school districts (the other being Bristol Borough) and has a student population that barely exceeds 1,100, K-12. Principal neigborhoods: Capitol View, Highland Park, Manor Park, Morris Heights, "The Island," and Washington Heights. Resident interviews conducted for the bicentennial celebration revealed many interesting insights to boro life: the fact that one neighborhood, "The Island" was simultaneously home to 4-generations of a single family. In fact, a notable number of residents who have called Morrisville "home" for more half-a-century are found throughout the boro. While the boro and school tax "rates" are the highest in southeastern PA, this is somewhat offset by the fact that residents are not levied the 1% earned-income tax that is found in most other municipalities within the region. The borough is home to four separate properties that appear on the National Register of Historic Places, including "Summerseat" which is also a National Historic Landmark. Viewed from 1846 [1, 2] Morrisville is a pleasant borough, with 405 inhabitants, opposite Trenton. The bridge over the Delaware, connecting it with Trenton, is 1100 feet long, and consists of 5 arches. The arches are of wood, and are above the level of the road-way, which is suspended from them by means of iron rods. Morrisville took its name from Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, who resided here some years, in a house that was afterwards occupied by General Moreau, of the French revolutionary army.
Pennsylvania Guide, 1940
MORRISV1LLE, 0.4 in. (21 alt.,5,368 pop.), first known as Falls of the Delaware, was renamed in honor of Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution, who had an imposing mansion here. Morrisville almost became the capital of the Nation. On October 7, 1783, a resolution was introduced in Congress "... that the Federal town should be erected on the banks of the Delaware at the falls near Trenton, on the New Jersey side, or in Pennsylvania on the opposite." The South spoke for Annapolis; Alexander Hamilton favored the present site on the Potomac River; Washington advised against Morrisville, but in spite of this formidable opposition, the resolution was defeated by only two votes. Mellowed by time, the town as a whole has much charm, but along the main route this aspect is hidden by gasoline stations, garages, repair shops, and lunch wagons, which provide 24-hour service for the ceaseless flow of motor traffic between Philadelphia and New York. The town conducts an active farm trade and has a few small factories. Many Trenton business men and workers live in Morrisville. The first European settlement in this section was made by the Dutch West India Company below the falls on a small island, now a mere sand bar, where three or four families lived in the shelter of the company's trading post from 1624 to 1627. A ferry plied back and forth across the Delaware here more than 50 years before Penn's arrival in America. SUMMERSEAT, Legion Ave. and Clymer St., built in the 1770's, is a two-and-a-half-story brick mansion with white shutters and many-paned windows; four tall chimneys rise from the slate roof. Thomas Barclay, a Philadelphia merchant, sold the house to Robert Morris, after whose death in 1806 it was acquired by George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. Summerseat served as Washington's headquarters for several weeks in I776 before the attack on Trenton (see Tour 11A). Restored in 1931 and renovated in 1935, it is now the administration building of the Robert Morris High School. In Morrisville are junctions with US 13 (see Tour 6) and State 32 (see Tour 11A). Federal Writers Project, Works Progress Administration, 1940 Polk's 1882 Gazetteer
MORRISVILLE. On the Delaware river and N. Y. Div. Penn. R. R., in Falls township, Bucks county, is a growing borough of 968 inhabitants, located on-opposite side of river from Trenton, N. J., 20 miles southeast of Doylestown, the county seat, and 31 northeast of Philadelphia. It contains several churches, good schools and 2 hotels. Trenton furnishes banking accommodations for the place. Ex., Adams. Tel., W. U.
R.L.Polk, Pennsylvania State Gazetteer & Business Directory, 1882, Philadelphia |
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