History

1.  The Farmhouse 

     The land known as Tamanend Park was first sold by William Penn to John Martin.  The property passed through several owners before being sold to Richard Leedom in 1713.  Richard Leedom was the first owner to actually live in Pennsylvania.  It is documented that Richard's son, William, already resided there in 1740 when he acquired the property from his father.  Most probably the house was built by Richard for his son William.  The property remained in the possession of the Leedom family until 1859. 

     The oldest part of the farmhouse is the middle section, with the south part dating back to the 1740's.  For most of two centuries this house was a tenant farmhouse with the owner living elsewhere.  Typical of houses of the time, it is just one room from front to back and the big fireplace retains an iron door for a bake oven.  After World War 1, William and Mary Long made it their residence, repairing and remodeling it.

2.  Stone Springhouse 

     The stone springhouse supplied pure, cold water for man and beast, and it was used as a refrigerator for eggs, milk and butter.  A cement slab at the farmhouse covers the old, round dug well.  Water from the springhouse flows through a brook to Tamanend Pond and Creek.

3.  Carriage House 

     Judging from its pegged beams and first layer of original shingles, the Carriage House was built about 1890.  It sheltered wagons and farm implements.   As late as 1976, Bob Ellis, the nursery foreman lived upstairs in a tiny apartment.  In 1985 the building was renovated into a meeting room with  kitchen.

4.  Park Office 

     The park office once stood at Second Street Pike as the sales building for the Southampton Nurseries.  It was moved to the present site and enlarged during the 1950's as the business prospered.  The north door at the office front lead to Mr. Long's office.

5.  White Barn 

     The white barn originally had wood siding, and the south side opened into a feed lot for cows and horses.  It is a typical Pennsylvania "bank barn", and there was easy access to hay and grain storage above the stables.  In the space behind the big cedar doors stood a machine for grading apples.  In the 1930's Mr. Long turned the farm into an orchard and laid the farm out on contour lines.  Old parallel nursery lanes still follow the curved lines of the contours.  Mrs. Long had an antiques business during the 1960's and 1970's.  The large windows on the north and east sides of the barn lighted the antique-filled rooms.

6.  Tamanend Tribute Rocks

     The Tamanend Tribute Rocks are weathered Delaware river glacial boulders.  The Friends of Tamanend placed them there to honor Chief Tamanend for the Southampton Tricentennial in 1985.

     In 1683, Chief Tamanend, a Lenape Sachem, "sold this part of Bucks County to William Penn in a treaty of friendship as long as the grass is green and the rivers flow."  Fifty-four years later, Penn's descendants broke the treaty with the fraudulent "Walking Purchase" and drove the remnants of the Lenape nation out of Pennsylvania.

     Names of Lenape Indians connected with Chief Tamanend are cut into the boulders.  They came with Chief Tamanend as guests of William Penn in his Philadelphia house for the treaty ceremonies.  The field of white pebbles represent the tightly knit, matriarchal tribe.  This is the only marker exclusively for Chief Tamanend.  That is why Bill Thompson, a Lenape chief, said at the dedication "You have given Tamanend back to us."

8. William Penn Treaty Elm 

     The William Penn Treaty Elm is a fifth generation scion of the great elm tree in Shakamaxon in Philadelphia.  (Shakamaxon was a historic village along the Delaware River inhabited by Lenape Indians.  The legendary elm tree marking the spot blew down in a storm in 1810.  Its location was memorialized as Penn Treaty Park.)  Legend has it that in 1682 William Penn met with the Lenape Indians under that elm to establish a foundation of peace and mutual respect between the European invaders and the native Americans in the new Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  In 1983, this elm was planted on William Penn's birthday, celebrating the tri-centennial of the Charter for Pennsylvania.

9.  Old School Baptist Meetinghouse 

     (Located across Second Street Pike at the park entrance.)  The roots of the Southampton Baptist Church reach back to a group of dissident Friends called "Keithian Quakers" who merged with members of the Church of Lower Dublin, also known as the Pennypack Baptist Church.  The well-preserved Meetinghouse with its four pot-bellied stoves is just as it was in 1814.  Members played a strong part in the American War for Independence. Joseph Hart was a colonel in Washington's army.  Oliver Hart won South Carolina to the patriot cause.  David Jones, a minister, served as a "fighting chaplain" all through the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

     The last living member, Sara Taylor, died in 1986.  A board of trustees manages the property which is a National Landmark.  Presently, the Meetinghouse is used for historic events, concerts and weddings.

Thanks to Friends of Tamanend, Upper Southampton Historical Advisory Board and the Upper Southampton Recreation and Park Board.  1994