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Tinicum Park Bucks County's First Public Park

Tinicum Park is located along the Delaware River in Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Erwin Stover House and Barn sit on 126 acres of public parkland.

This historic house and farm was given to the people of Bucks County by John J. Stover, May 1955, to become the first county park.

Portrait of John J. Stover

John was the youngest child of Jacob and Mary Stover. He grew up in Erwinna and he attended Swarthmore College. After graduating, he came home to run the Stover’s Flour Mills.

Stover Flour and Lumber Mill

John was an entrepreneur and he embraced the newest technologies, bringing telephone and electric to the area. In 1902, he started the Stover Telephone Company Company with a direct line to Philadelphia through the Keystone System. One year later, John set up a dynamo to operate the mill turbine and began providing electricity to the residents of Erwinna.

Advertisement for the Stover Telephone Company

In 1930, John and his wife Vergie and his sister, Matilda (“Tillie”) moved into the Erwin-Stover House. Tillie lived in the south side and John and his wife in the north. Vergie taught piano to area children in the north parlor. Tillie was the first born of Jacob and Mary Stover. She attended Doylestown Seminary and never married. She was an avid newspaper reader and a charter member of the Delaware Valley Protective Association. Tillie’s clothing became the foundation for the Tinicum Arts Festival Historic Fashion Shows which were held on the front lawn of the Stover House every summer.

Tillie Stover seated on the porch of the Erwin Stover house on the left with a student modeling her clothes for the Tinicum Art Festival. Another model on the left on the lawn of the Erwin Stover house

John Stover gave the house, outbuildings and 126 acres of land to the County on May 11, 1955, to be used in perpetuity as the County's first public park. In exchange he received $3,000 a year and the right to live in the house until he died.

A 1931 aerial Photo of John Stover's 126 acre parcel of Farm Land which was transformed into the idyllic parkland it is today

Three months later the house was damaged drastically by the August 1955 flood.

After John passed in 1958, Bucks County prisoners from Doylestown cleaned out he house and the barn. Over the course of the next decade the County restored the House and Barn, and the park was opened as the first County administered park in 1970.

The Restoration Documented

The Erwin Stover House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

Photos of the interior of the Erwin Stover House featuring our historic furnishings, textiles and documents

Today the House is open to the public weekends, 12-4 pm from May through October for historic tours and programs. The Barn is available to rent through the season for special events. The surrounding park is open dawn to dusk and includes a camping area, playgrounds, picnic tables and pavilion, trails, ball fields, a boat launch, and a disc golf course.

The Tinicum Players offer monthly Thursday Evening Programs June through October featuring historic pastimes from colonial strategy games to card parties.
The barn is host to annual Community events like the Bucks County Dog Show, the Tinicum Arts Festival, the Fourth of July Symphonia and Fireworks and the covered Bridge Bike Tour.
Throughout the season we will offer outdoor pastimes on the grounds from Baseball to Badminton, May Poles to Croquet.
In November, look for the Annual Erwinna Fall Festival and Family Day.
Throughout the Season we welcome Wedding and special event Rentals in the Stover Barn.
Keep an eye out for our Hands on Historic demonstrations of food, textiles and gardening.
Join us at Our Traditional St. Nicholas Day Celebration the First Weekend in December.

If you have already visited Tinicum Park we thank you and if you haven't, we invite to come out for one of our open days, event or programs, or just to explore the grounds.

This Presentation was Created by Amy Hollander, Historic Property Manager for the County of Bucks, Parks and Recreation Department
Created By
Amy Hollander
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