Ridge Valley Rural Historic District -- National Register of Historic Places Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Travel Itinerary

[photo] Views of the Ridge Valley Rural Historic District, illustrating the typical landscapes and 19th-century farm buildings
Photographs from National Register collection

Ridge Valley Rural Historic District contains more than 575 acres of land in Tinicum Township. The terrain is characterized by exposed shale, steep slopes, creeks, winding roads, open fields, and woods. The name for this historic district comes from the 1891 Atlas, in which this area was labeled Ridge Valley School District. The architecture consists mostly of 19th-century farmsteads, typically with 3-bay farmhouses built of red shale, bank barns, and other outbuildings creating a distinctive type of traditional Bucks County vernacular farm architecture. Settlement of the Ridge Valley began in the late 18th century and farming flourished on the hilly terrain through the 19th century. Ridge Valley farming did not modernize in the 20th century and few farms weathered the Great Depression. The unique survival of the 19th-century characteristics of Ridge Valley farmsteads results from the efforts of an influx of New York city artists, who began moving to Bucks County in the 1920s and 30s. Personalities who moved to Tinicum Township included artist Charles Rudy, screenwriter John Wexley, actress Miriam Hopkins, songwriter Jerome Kern, playwright S.J. Perelman, and satirist Dorothy Parker.

The Ridge Valley Rural Historic District encompasses all of Sheep Hole Rd. and parts of Headquarters, Geigel Hill, Red Hill, Tabor and Bunker Hill Rds. in Ottsville (Tinicum Township). Take a right off Durham Rd. in Ottsville-the core of the Ridge Valley Historic District is the valley cut by the Tinicum Creek through which Sheep Hole Rd. travels. The properties located in the district are privately owned, but the main roads are public.

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