A Castle Full of Treasure: The Mercer Museum - Doylestown, Pa

   If you drive through Doylestown in Bucks County, you'll doubtless observe its many downtown shops and restaurants lining its well-kept streets.  As you leave the downtown area, the street widens as the shops give way to suburban homes with gardens, shrubbery, and front porches.  The skyline as you approach Pine Street, however, is abruptly disturbed by something dark and foreboding - a 6 story tall concrete castle.

The castle in question is not the fortress of some exiled monarch of old Europe, but a museum built by renouned archaeologist Dr. Henry Chapman Mercer, one of the world's most eccentric collectors.

Mercer (1856-1930) believed that the advances of the Industrial Revolution were making many traditional trades and crafts obsolete.  Realizing that many everyday objects were disappearing from public consciousness, and the knowledge to use simple tools being forgotten in the age of more advanced machinery, Mercer set out to collect the artifacts of pre-industrial life.

Mercer needed a large structure to house his collection, however, and was set against a traditional structure of wooden construction.  He saw his aunt's collection of medieval armor destroyed by fire, and was determined that his collection would be housed in a structure that would be completely immune to flames.  Thus, construction of a rebar reinforced, poured concrete building was begun in 1904 and completed in 1916.

Every part of the museum is concrete, except the window frames and exhibits.  Concrete staircases lead up from the concrete main floor to the higher concrete levels, which are open in the middle, forming a 6 story tall atrium capped by a concrete ceiling. 

Within this bizarre architecture are hung objects that, while once common, are now alien and bizarre to most people.  A whale boat is suspended off a balcony, while hand-made bassinets are hung from the ceiling high above.  Carriages and bicycles pay testament to a time before automobiles.  Small alcoves house the tools of clock makers, farmers, weavers, and bakers.  Musical instruments, medical devices, coal stoves, and tobacconists' carved indians are stationed in the various corners of museum, which is appropriate for all ages.

Even the ceiling of Mercer Museum is both made of concrete,
and covered in artifacts of the pre-industrial age.

Check the museum's website for hours and admission prices.