After a decade-long search, the African American Museum of Bucks County has finally found a permanent location. The museum is currently under construction on Boone Farm, a significant historic site located in Bucks County's Core Creek Park in Middletown, which was also a vital stop on the Underground Railroad in the 1800s.
A rendering of the renovated facility.
The Bucks County Commissioners approved the African American Museum of Bucks County to rent the empty Boone Farm for $1 per year until 2030. In 2020, County commissioners Diane Marseglia, Robert Harvie, and Gene DiGirolamo voted to allow the property to be leased to the museum for only a $1 a year for the next 29 years. The vote left Linda Salley, one of two surviving founders of the museum, in thrilled disbelief.
Boone Farm passed into county ownership along with the rest of Core Creek Park about 50 years ago and has remained unused until now. "That building was closed up and nothing had been done to it for decades," Griggs said of the agreement between the county and the nonprofit to repurpose the farmhouse as a museum. "It was a major undertaking for the museum to take on as a whole. So it being a county-owned building, we thought it was our responsibility to take care of the core and shell.
The Significance of Boone Farm
These stories begin with the land named after the last residents of the farm, Chesire Lawton Boone and Grace Rossman Boone. As highlighted in the book, Boone Farm: It’s People and Place in Middletown History, by Patricia L. Mervine, M.A., former owners have provided snapshots of what transpired during the early days of the Republic. Mervine has a personal attachment to the farm.
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One of the most interesting stories from the book is about a former Quaker, Samuel Kirk, who was read out of the faith due to his choice to not free his enslaved. Another figure of interest is lawyer and tax collector Daniel Martin whose 1790 census records reveals that he owned a slave named John who was five years old at the time. Another interesting footnote mentions Louisa Osmond, a white woman of high society who moved onto the farm in 1893 with her husband, Frank.
Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia “said the building is called Boone Farm. I said, ‘What? What did you say?’ She said, ‘Boone Farm.’ I said, ‘Do you know the story of Boone Farm?’ She says, ‘No, it’s just been there forever.’ I said, ‘Yes, it has.
The Museum's Mission and History
Salley, along with the other two founders, Millard Mitchell and Harvey Spencer, now deceased, helped create the museum in 2014 as a traveling exhibition. Prior to the news, the museum was a mobile museum operated and maintained by a volunteer staff composed primarily of president and executive director Linda Salley, vice president William H.
Salley had met some of the women who came to Bristol to make new lives for themselves by sewing and selling quilts on Boone Farm. “They started telling me stories about how they arrived here in Bristol, and how they left the South and came North looking for work and wanting a better, safe haven for their children and themselves,” she said. “They raised their children, and they bought homes, and their children have gone to college and they were happy. But most of them are gone now, and this story lives on,” Salley said.
The volunteers are currently traveling around the county in the mobile museum with its presentation of the Untold Stories and Hidden Figures of Bucks County. The program conjures up the memories of Black Joe Brown of Marblehead, Massachusetts and Oliver Cromwell, both African soldiers who were with George Washington during their fateful crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Night in 1776.
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Mid-19th century history highlights Lower Bucks County’s role in the Underground Railroad with various sites related to Mother Bethel AME founder Richard Allen. The African Methodist Episcopal Church in Yardley and Bensalem AME Church are only two of the various places that served a role as safe house stations.
Bensalem AME Church, founded as the Free Peoples Church in 1817, served as a safe house on the Underground Railroad. A photo from 1958 shows congregants of Bensalem AME Church.
More recently, the traveling museum has been focusing on the Civil Rights era. A specific example is African American couple Daisy and William Myers who were chased out of the Dogwood Hollow area of Levittown by a white mob in 1957. The museum keeps these stories engaging and attracts interested individuals and groups from both Bucks County and the surrounding areas with events like A Jazz Tribute to Langston Hughes and virtual education for kindergarteners to 5th graders.
All of these stories form the backdrop of what is at the core of the African American Museum of Bucks County and serve to connect it to the community at large. While the public may have to wait an additional year before they can visit the new facility, the museum continues its educational programming. In terms of community engagement, Black History Month and Juneteenth are its most popular seasons.
Having a brick-and-mortar location will give the museum the ability to host school classes, families, and individuals furthering the museum’s mission to educate the public, Salley said. “Not just in Bucks County, but all over, from all over, from New York, to Delaware, to New Jersey,” she said. “It’s important that we continue to propagate this history and this education into our school systems. Having a physical location will allow us to have people come and visit the exhibits,” he said.
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With a fixed location, this group of retired educators, healthcare professionals, executives, and others can offer more educational programming to the residents of Bucks County. According to long-time associate Lisa Gage, COVID-related delays and a lack of funds have put a temporary pause on their grand opening. While planning for an official opening in 2025, the mobile museum continues to provide education and awareness to local schools, businesses, community centers, and individuals interested in learning about the people, places, and stories that highlight a neglected part of Bucks County history.
The Renovation Project
"The project is special to me because we are essentially taking a 17th-century farmhouse and restoring it as if it were new," said Bucks County Project and Diversity Officer Bernard Griggs. "What it will mean for Bucks County is having the first-ever museum to showcase and educate people not only on African-American history, but particularly about what happened in Bucks County."
There are two phases to the project to rehabilitate Boone Farm for the African American Museum in Bucks County. The first phase began in 2022 and includes restoring the facade and completing interior construction. It should be complete by late spring. In the second phase, the interior of the building will be further built out by the nonprofit museum, which was incorporated in 2014, but has never had a physical building and permanent home of its own for its many exhibits and artifacts.
In a presentation before the Bucks County Board of Commissioners last week, Bill Reed, board member and vice president of the African American Museum of Bucks County, said although phase one is nearing completion, there is still much work to be done. "In order to occupy the building, a tremendous amount of work is required. In order to raise the funds, the African-American Museum has kicked off a capital campaign in the fall of 2023 to raise $2 million in 2024 to complete the work," Reed said.
The African American Museum of Bucks County plans on cutting the ribbon on its new location next year. However, I still believe that we’ll continue the traveling and the pop-up portion of it.
The Underground Railroad: On the Road to Freedom
Students' Involvement
A large group of Bucks County middle and high school students traveled to Washington D.C. in December to testify about hate incidents in Bucks County schools. A group of Bucks County elementary, middle school and high school students traveled to Washington D.C.
