The Parrys of Philadelphia and New Hope

More than two hundred and twenty-five years have passed since young Benjamin Parry established himself in New Hope and helped to catapult the town into prominence as the manufacturing and industrial capital of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the driving force that brought new prosperity to a town that was just beginning to come into its own. He led the way in the construction of the first bridge. He spearheaded the drive to establish the town’s first commercial bank and he was in the forefront of those who set out to expand the industrial footprint of the growing community. His patented grain drying invention helped farmers throughout the young country to expand their overseas markets. He was active in the construction and financing of the Delaware Canal that vastly enhanced the transportation network in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nearly one hundred buildings that were built during the Parry era remain in use today. Parry’s flour mill had been incorporated into the legendary Bucks County Playhouse when it was established in 1939. His barn now houses an upscale import shop and his home remains the gleaming jewel of architecture in New Hope as the headquarters of the town’s historical society. Benjamin Parry’s son, Oliver, and Oliver’s nephew, Nathaniel Randolph, led the way in Philadelphia more than a century and a half ago in expanding the city’s grid westward. They developed boulevards, cozy streets and hundreds of charming town homes in an area that just a few years before had been the site of a barren wasteland full of vast gullies. Today, most of the housing development in the city of Philadelphia takes the form of vertically stacked, compartmentalized structures of concrete, glass and steel. Many of Oliver Parry’s row houses along the tree-lined streets of the Spring Garden neighborhood remain as residential oases amid the gleaming high rise towers of center city.