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Fonthill Museum
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4 reviews for Fonthill Museum
Between this and the Mercer Museum, there is a lot to see. But if you want to see only one, go to Fonthill...the mansion. It is an amazing feat of construction, art, and ambition. I truly love this place. It is among the best sites to visit in the greater Philadelphia region.
Doylestown is also a nice place to visit. So plan for a whole day here.
I used to work at the Mercer Museum - as a summer day camp counselor \many years ago. We would take the kids to Fonthill for tours as well.
Anyhow, Fonthill is the steel re-enforced home of Henry Chapman Mercer who also built his workshop & tile works right next door. His beloved horse Lucy and dog Rolo took part in the construction.
Kids and Adults can both learn from the one hour tour at Fonthill. A trip to the Mercer Museum is also a must. (Especially during the annual Folk Fest.)
You can also get married on the grounds of Fonthill. and it's a great place to have a picnic in the summer or fall. Christmas is a gorgeous time at Fonthill with an enormous tree in the great hall and candle-lit tours. (Not sure if they still do these.)
What a marvelous piece of local history.
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The Fonthill Museum is one of the coolest, most surprising museums I have visited. It's even better if you combine it with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works next door. The two are closely linked and, along with the Mercer Museum, make up the "Mercer Mile" in Doylestown.
Fonthill is a rare museum in that it was designed and constructed by the eccentric Henry Mercer, a champion of the Arts & Crafts movement. From the stately and vaguely spooky exterior, to the quirky interior with its amazing collections of cuneiform tablets, artifacts from around the world and of course Mercer's ceramics, Fonthill is one-of-a-kind.
The hour-long guided tour brings the place to life with vivid stories about Mercer's life and work, along with facts about the collections, artifacts and offbeat architectural details. Lots of laughs, wows, oohs and ahhs along the way through this 42-room concrete mansion.
Time your visit right and check out the Moravian Tile Works for 2/3 of the Mercer experience. You'll be glad you did. Highly recommended.
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My rating is missing one star, courtesy of my clausterphobia. The hallways are *so* tiny.
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