December 22, 2011 - My Grandfather's House

It's three days before Christmas and surprisingly warm and sunny for the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year.  I don't think the bike has been out this month yet and today looks like it may be the last chance.  It's Thursday and the good people of the world are all working.  I have been looking for an opportunity for a solo ride to go on a quest and today is the day.

Rt 313 Across Bucks - Straight and Trafficky

When I was young, living in Easton then later the first few years at Martins Creek, my grandparents had a small stone house in the country outside of Penns Park in southern Bucks County.  I remember driving down to visit them there, have a fairly good recollection of the route and approximately where the house was, and have some reasonable memories of what the house and property looked like, but I have not been to Penns Park since they moved to Addison Street in Philadelphia in the early 60's.  My quest was to ride over to southern Bucks and see if I could find my Grandfather's house based on these memories from 50 years ago.


With some guidance from the map and my early memories, I knew our route was south on Rt 611 from Easton to Pipersville, then bearing left to follow Rt 413 south.  I had a fairly clear memory of bearing right at the Y junction with Rt 232 just north of Penns Park, then in my memory, a left turn onto the road that the house was on.

The obvious route to the area from our neck of the woods was Rt 313 out of Quakertown leading across south central Bucks.  I have to think that the surveyors got to this area before the farmers because the roads are all laid out on a straight grid.  Rt 313 runs straight as an arrow up and down hills with no consideration for topography whatsoever.  And, being the main highway from points A to points B in a fairly built up area, it tends to be trafficky - makes for less than ideal motorcycle riding overall.  However, today's journey is more about the quest and less about the ride.

The day was bright and sunny with temperatures mild enough for a comfortable ride in full winter gear with the electrics on half power.  Penns Park was where the map said it would be but at first I had trouble finding the house.  In my memory, I thought there was a left turn off Rt 232 onto the road where the house was.  The map indicated this would be Penns Park Rd, a good guess, but no luck as the house was not there between Penns Park and Wrightstown.  After several passes back and forth through Penns Park, I realized that the house was right there on 2nd Street Pike.  I had been by it several times, and just had not recognized it at first.  It was much smaller than I remembered and closer to the road, with the distance to the carriage house much less than in my memory.  Go figure.  Once I realized I was there, I stopped and walked around the property.  It is much as I remember it, pretty much unchanged in 50 years.  I think that the left turn I remembered which threw off my initial location was actually the turn into the driveway when coming from the north.  Once I saw the location relative to the village of Penns Park, I realized it jived with a very old memory I have of riding with my Grandfather down to the village to buy a newspaper.

Today, the house looks a little worse for wear.  It is for sale.  According to the listing, it is a short sale requiring 3rd party approval and has been on the market since last March.  The sale is strictly AS IS which makes me think the septic system is probably distressed with no room on the small lot for a new one.   Well, I am not in the market for a house in Bucks.  I just wanted the chance to renew this old memory from 50 years ago and see the house that played a big part as a special place in my early childhood.