Bucks County has always played an important role in Pennsylvania’s, and the nation’s, historic and cultural lives. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, it was named after Buckinghamshire, the English county in which Penn lived. Pennsbury Manor, Penn’s country estate along the Delaware River, is a much visited National Historic Site. Doylestown, the county seat, dates back to at least 1745 when ‘William Doyle’s Tavern’ was erected on the corners of State and Main Streets. This strategic location, linking Norristown and New Hope, enabled the small village to grow into a thriving center of commerce. Long before European settlers began immigrating to Pennsylvania in the 17th Century, the Lenape Indians, who lived on the fertile banks of both the Hudson and Delaware Rivers for hundreds of years, called Bucks County home. Their history and contributions can still be experienced at the Lenape Indian Village, a living history exhibit at the Churchville Nature Center.

Besides being home to William Penn, Bucks County is the birthplace, or has been home to many other luminaries: Vice President Aaron Burr hid out in a tavern in New Hope, after having famously killedAlexander Hamilton in a duel. George Nakashima, one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts movement, designed his signature furniture here. The singer Alecia Moore—better known as Pink— is a native of Doylestown. James Michener was likewise born in Doylestown, and for thirty years, Pearl Buck lived and wrote here. World-famous lyricist Oscar Hammerstein lived on Highland Farm, just outside of Doylestown, from 1940 until his death in 1960. And in the world of sports, no Bucks County athlete made a greater impact or caused more heartfelt sighs than thoroughbred racehorse Smarty Jones, who came within one race of winning horse racing’s coveted Triple Crown, losing — by a length — to Birdstone in the 2004 Belmont Stakes.