Bucks County as Inspiration

A Driving Tour that highlights the sights and scenes inspirational to the work of Daniel Garber.

	Daniel Garber, , A Wooded Watershed, 1926. Oil on canvas. H. 129.25 x 257.25 inches. James A. Michener Art Museum

Your driving tour begins at the James A. Michener Art Museum.

The James A. Michener Art Museum
138 South Pine Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
215-340-9800
Directions to the Museum

Please, take your time and use caution. To enjoy this tour take your time. Be sure to bring a map and one or more co-pilots. Some of the landscapes and views on the tour are off the beaten path. Bucks County roads can be narrow and hilly. Make sure the spot you choose to pull off the road is safe.

Cottageville

The painting Mary's Cottage was painted in Cottageville. It is not certain whether the actual house now remains, but the small village is still identified.

To reach the setting of Mary's Cottage:

• Follow Pine Street, just in front of the Museum, to the intersection at Pine & Ashland.
• Make a right turn onto Ashland and go to the second traffic light at 313.
• Make a left on 313 West to the second traffic light at Cold Spring Creamery Road.
• Take Cold Spring Creamery Road approximately 3.2 miles until it dead ends at Rt. 413.
• Make a right turn onto Rt. 413 and make the next left onto Long Lane.
• Follow Long Lane for 1.3 miles until the first stop sign
• Bear left onto Street Road and follow for 0.7 miles to Carversville Road. Stop Here.
• This is the intersection of Street & Carversville Roads and the site of Mary's Cottage. Take a look at the small white house with the white fence across the road to the right.

Carversville is a small village with upscale dining, a general store, lovely homes and churches.

• You are at the intersection of Street & Carversville Road.
• Make a right on Carversville Road.
• Follow for 1 mile down and over the one lane bridge into the village.
In the village, Carversville Rd. intersects with Wismer Road, Aquetong
• Road and Fleecydale Road. The scene Down Through Carversville is seen from driving into the village from Aquetong Road.

Uhlerstown is the next stop. Uhlerstown is the location for Snow at Harer's. Frederick Harer (1879-1948) was a well-known Bucks County frame maker who settled in Uhlerstown in the early 1920's. Harer was very influential as a teacher and extended his legacy through his many apprentices. For more information on Frederick Harer see Carved Incised Gilded and Burnished: The Bucks County Framemaking Tradition, Exhibition and Catalogue by Erika Jaeger Smith, 2000. Uhlerstown is also the location of the Uhlerstown Covered Bridge, which is exhibited in the painting.

	Daniel Garber, , Geddes Run, 1930. Oil on canvas. H. 52 x 56 inches. Collection of Thomas and Karen Buckley

• Take Wismer Road at the intersection in Carversville
• Follow Wismer Road until it dead-ends onto Dark Hollow Road. There is no sign at that intersection look a large bleached out barn across the road.
• Make a right turn onto Dark Hollow Road and follow fro 5.9 miles to the River Road, Rt.32.
• Make a left turn on River Road, Rt. 32 follow to Uhlerstown Hill Road. (If you come to the bridge to Frenchtown NJ on the right you have gone too far.)
• Turn left onto Uhlerstown Hill Road.
• The village is quite small and mostly privately owned.
• It is suggested that you turn around on Uhlerstown Road and proceed back to River Road, Rt. 32. for the next leg of the journey.

• Follow Uhlerstown Hill Road back to River Road, Rte 32.
• Make a right onto River Road, Rt. 32 and back track past Dark Hollow Road.
• Proceed for approximately 1.4 miles to the village of Smithtown. Here you can see the Canal Bridge, Smithtown.
• There is a small pullover to the left for a closer look. The River Road is narrow and twisting, so caution needs to be observed at all times.

Pt. Pleasant is 4.2 miles down the River Road Rte 32 from Uhlerstown. This is the location for Old Ferry Road; Late Snow Byram; The Valley, May; House With a Deck (this is a view from Pt. Pleasant across the Delaware); Study After Along the Tohickon.

	Daniel Garber, , Late Snow, Byram, 1936. Oil on canvas. H. 28.125 x W. 30 inches. James A. Michener Art Museum, Gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest

• From Uhlerstown, follow River Road, Rte 32 for 4.2 miles to Point Pleasant.
• Upon entering Point Pleasant, look to the right for the Pt Pleasant Baptist Church.
• Make a hard right in front of the church and climb up Cafferty Road.
• Follow Cafferty for 1.8 miles to Tory Road and make a left. Along the way and down to the left is the Tohickon Creek, you will pass a cemetery on the right. Continue on past Tohickon Valley Park on the left to the intersection of Tory Road.
• Make a left on Tory Road and travel 1.3 miles. Tory Road will be gravel. You will see a parking lot on the right. Park the car. Cross the road and proceed down the slope to enjoy the view of the Tohickon Creek from High Rocks Overlook part of Ralph Stover State Park.
• To see the Tohickon Creek from its banks, you will back track along Tory Road to the intersection at Cafferty Road and make a right
• Follow Cafferty Road back down into Pt. Pleasant. At the bottom of the hill and with the yellow frame church on your left continue down past the Pt. Pleasant General Store on the right to the bridge and make a right turn.
• Make a right turn onto Tohickon Hill Road, just over the bridge.
• Almost immediately you will look right to see the Pt. Pleasant Community Park, turn in and park the car.
• Walk down to the banks of the Tohickon Creek and to the left enjoy an unspoiled view of the Creek as it has always been and as Garber would have seen it.
• For a view of Pt. Pleasant from above, make a left turn out of the Pt. Pleasant Community Park and at the STOP sign cross over Pt. Pleasant Pike putting the Pt. Pleasant Post Office on your left and go to the first STOP sign.
• Make a right up Ferry Road and at the top of the hill follow the detour and bear round left and at Old Ferry Road make a left turn. Stop and enjoy the view along the way, but this is a steep, narrow and winding road. Be cautious. Old Ferry Road will bring you back down to River Road.

• Take a right turn onto River Road from Old Ferry Road.
• At the 2 mile mark, you will pass through Lumberville.
• On the right just before the Black Bass Restaurant you will see the walking bridge that connects Pennsylvania with New Jersey at Bull's Island State Park.
• Pass the intersection at Greenhill Road and follow for 1 mile to Cuttaloosa Road.
• Make a right onto Cuttalossa Road and quickly you will come to a fork in the road.
• Bear right at the fork onto Armitage Road
• Follow Armitage for approximately 2 miles. Look to the right for a view very reminiscent of the etching Armitage Lane.

This is the location of Daniel Garber's former home and studio.

	Daniel Garber with his sheep at "Cuttalossa", Courtesy of the Garber family.

	The cottage garden studio and workshop at "Cuttalossa", courtesy of the Garber family.

• Continue on Armitage Road until it dead-ends at Sugan Road.
• Make a left onto Sugan Road and follow to Mechanicsville Road.
• Make a left onto Mechanicsville Road and look ahead to the one lane bridge approaching.
• After crossing the bridge you will make an immediate left onto Cuttalossa Road.
• Cuttalossa Road is approximately 2 miles long in total.
• Continue across a small bridge at which point the road will no longer be paved.
• After the first one lane bridge, look over to your right to see a small sheep shed.
• Further down on the same side of the road enjoy the view of the small mill and millpond. If you're lucky the sheep will be out and you will be able to feed them with food provided by the current owners for a small fee.
• Across the road is the former home and studio of Daniel Garber. It is currently privately owned and not accessible for viewing. Please enjoy the setting, however.

The area around Centre Bridge is the location for Geddes Run and Glen Road. These views were taken from the upper vantage point of Rt. 263 above where it meets the River Road.

• Follow Cuttalossa Road back to the River Road, Rt. 32.
• Make a right onto River Road, Rte 32 and proceed approximately 2½ miles to Centre Bridge.

Stockton is the location of The Stockton Inn, known in Garber's time as Colligan's Stockton Inn. Behind the in is an old wishing well. Garber used the image of the wishing well as an illustration for Bucks, the Artists County Cooks: A Gourmet's Guide to Estimable Comestibles with Pictures.

• Make a left at Center Bridge and cross over the bridge into Stockton, NJ.
• The Stockton Inn, will be straight ahead. The old wishing well can still be seen behind the Inn in spite of an expansion in the back. The wishing well was used as inspiration for the Rodgers & Hart song "There's a Small Hotel with a Wishing Well." Also included in the wishing well image is the image of a deer, which was known to frequent the Inn both inside and out as a pet of the owner at the time.
  
  
• To view Garber's Church at Stockton, exit the Stockton Inn parking lot and make a left turn onto NJ Rt.29.
• The road splits at this intersection and caution is advised.
• Drive slowly around to the right. There is a small parking lot behind the church.

	Daniel Garber, , William Langston Lathrop, 1935. Oil on canvas. 50 x 41.875 inches. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Joseph E. Temple Fund

• You will need to return to Pennsylvania by crossing back over the bridge at Stockton to Centre Bridge.
• Bear left onto River Road, Rt. 32 for approximately 1.5 miles to Phillips Mill.
• After the first STOP sign drive a few feet and look to the right for the parking lot.
• There may be an exhibition in place for you to enjoy. This small village is the location of the former home of William Langson Lathrop who is attributed with being an early founder of the Pennsylvania School of Impressionism and admired by Garber as being "the dean of our little group." The painting William Langson Lathrop was painted in Lathrop's own studio in Phillips Mill. Also from 1929 and for many years in between up to 1950, Garber exhibited work in the Phillips Mill Exhibitions.

• Take a left out of the parking lot at Phillips Mill and follow Rte 32 for 1-mile further crossing over a canal bridge into New Hope.
• You will be entering into New Hope from the north.
• River Road becomes Main Street in New Hope.
• At the first traffic light cross over Bridge Street and proceed to Ferry Street which will be on the left.
• After parking the car you may walk down to the river's edge at this location
• Two views of Lambertville NJ are visible to the left from the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge as viewed from New Hope. The Shad Fishery picture is of the location in Lambertville where Shad has traditionally been pulled from the river and is located on Holcombe Island. Lambertville Holiday is from a one time bathing beach in Lambertville and may also have been located on Holcombe Island. Views of Lambertville from New Hope are visible from the footpath on the bridge or from other riverside locations in New Hope. The view is very good from the Landing Restaurant on the left.

Daniel Garber, , Haystacks at Kintnersville,, 1940. Oil on canvas. 18 x 22 inches. Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22
• There are several pictures attributed to New Hope, but all of the locations are not known due to many changes made to the town and the riverbank over time. A visit to the New Hope Visitors Center at the intersection of Main and Mechanics Streets may be helpful in getting a street map of New Hope and some street directions.
• The picture In New Hope seems to be a view from the Bucks County Playhouse side of an older bridge than the one currently over the Aquetong Creek and into the back yards on the other side. The bridge in front of the Playhouse is on Main Street.
• The Phantom Mill location is unknown at this time. Summer Day and School Days appear to be another view from the riverbank in New Hope into Lambertville. Back Yards, New Hope and Gardens may be a view from Mechanics Street or the Stockton Avenue Bridge but this not certain.
• To view the old Sycamore which is still standing at River House drive on Main Street just past the Bucks County Playhouse make a right on Mechanics Street and a left on New Street. Look to your left and as the canal comes into sight see the old Locktender's House and Canal Barge business and the imposing Sycamore still standing in front of them. The idea for the oil on canvas entitled Old Lock House, 1939 seems to have been taken from the 1938 etching River House.

Lambertville NJ

	Daniel Garber, , Lambertville Holiday, 1941. Oil on composition board. 13.375 x 15.9375 inches. Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22

• To enjoy a view from Lambertville, cross over the New Hope Lambertville Bridge
• Continue on Lambertville's Bridge Street until it dead ends at Rt. 29 S.
• Bear right at the traffic light onto Rt. 29 S and look immediately to your left for the turn onto Swan Road.
• At the STOP sign make a right onto Franklin Street and proceed up the hill to the dead-end. You will pass the cemetery on the left.
• Bear left at the dead-end and park the car at the top of the street.
• Here you can and look left and down over the view of Lambertville Churches.

To return to Doylestown and the James A. Michener Art Museum:

• Cross back over the New Hope Lambertville Bridge back into New Hope.
• Follow to the first, and New Hope's only traffic light
• Continue to go straight ahead on Rt. 179.
• Rt. 179 merges into Rt. 202 S. Remain on Rt. 202 S through Lahaska, Holicong and back into Doylestown
• Continue past the intersection at Rt. 313 past the next traffic light at East Road
• At the next fork in the road bear left onto Ashland Street. You will pass Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Elementary School on your right and cross over Church Street.
• At Pine Street make a left and the museum is on your left.

• Carved Incised Gilded and Burnished: the Bucks County Framemaking Tradition, Exhibition and Catalogue by Erika Jaeger Smith 2000.
• The complete Daniel Garber Catalogue Raisonne, Volumes I and II by Lance Humphries, 2006.
• Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania by George MacReynolds, 1955.
• Bucks County, Pennsylvania, The Map People, 19th Edition.
• Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau Visitors Guide, 2006.