18th century in New Hope by
Joseph Pickett in 1945 New Hope is located along the route of the
Old York Road, the onetime main highway between
Philadelphia and
New York City. It was generally regarded as the halfway point, where travelers would stay overnight and be ferried across the
Delaware River the next morning. The section of
U.S. Route 202 that passes just north of New Hope is still named York Road, and the original route is now Bridge Street (
PA 179). New Hope was first called Wells' Ferry and later Coryell's Ferry, after the owners of the ferry business. The current name came into use following a fire in 1790 that destroyed several mills owned by Benjamin Parry. He rebuilt them and named them New Hope Mills, from which the town derives its current name. The night prior to
George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, Washington lodged in New Hope, and then destroyed the ferry so the
British Army could not follow him. Following the
Battle of Trenton and
Battle of Princeton, when British troops were sweeping the area, seeking
Continental Army troops, there was no response when they rang for the ferry. The British assumed the town was sympathetic to the Continental Army and shelled the town. Several of the older structures in the town still claim to have unexploded British ordnance lodged in their roofbeams.
19th century The
North Pennsylvania Railroad finished construction of their New Hope Branch in 1891, later being taken over by the
Reading Railroad. Passenger service to Philadelphia's
Reading Terminal as well as all other passenger activity was terminated in 1952 from Hatboro, also the end for electrified track, and New Hope.
20th century Between 1952 and 1966, only freight trains were seen entering and leaving New Hope, mostly to deliver paper pulp for the Union Camp Paper Corp. and to deliver sand and gravel to James D. Morrissey Materials Co., a cement company and a division of James D. Morrissey, Inc. In 1966, the
New Hope and Ivyland Railroad was formed and bought of track from New Hope southwest to
Ivyland. Scenic tourist excursions started the same year. Freight service to New Hope was then handled by the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad. In 1972,
SEPTA, who by then took over Reading Railroad's passenger operations, extended the electrified route to Warminster, where the current interchange for both SEPTA and NHRR is. Freight service to James D. Morrissey Materials Co. ceased sometime in the late 1970s and to Union Camp Paper Corp. in 1985. The New Hope and Ivyland Railroad continues to provide scenic tourist excursion passenger trains between New Hope and nearby
Lahaska. In 1983,
NBC network anchorwoman
Jessica Savitch and her boyfriend drowned after their car overturned into the
Delaware Canal. The canal passes by Odette's Restaurant, where the couple had dined on a rainy evening when visibility was poor and two warning signs were missed.
21st century In 2004 and 2006, New Hope was flooded when the
Delaware River overflowed. On both occasions, the downtown businesses reopened within several days. Compared to the Great Flood of 1955, the 2004 and 2006 floods did not cause severe damage or fatalities. ==Geography==