Grand Celebration To Mark Parry Mansion Museum's 50th Year

NEW HOPE, BOROUGH — The New Hope Historical Society will present a grand celebration of the Parry Mansion Museum’s 50th year on May 4 from 5 to 8 p.m.

For five decades, the mansion on South Main has been providing historic tours, speaker series, lectures, art shows, music and reenactments along with a variety of other programs.

Admission to the celebration is $75, which includes food and beverages provided by Ferry and Main Restaurant, an open bar, entertainment, tours of the Parry Mansion and an auction of a number of fine works of art and entertainment venues. Tickets for the event may be reserved at newhopehistory.org.

Benjamin Parry, often referred to as the Father of New Hope, moved into his new mansion at 45 South Main Street in New Hope with his wife, Jane Paxson, about two years before George Washington became President of the United States.

And four successive generations of the family continued to make the elegant Georgian-style mansion their home until President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s third year in office, according to New Hope historian Roy Ziegler.

In 1966 when the New Hope Historical Society purchased the home for $67,000 from Margaret Parry Lang, the great-great granddaughter of Benjamin Parry, it probably saved the historic home from becoming a gas station or an antique shop, according to Ziegler. The driving force behind the purchase was Dr. Arthur Ricker, a beloved New Hope physician who seemed to have never stopped thinking about New Hope’s three centuries of history. He founded the New Hope Historical Society, becoming its first president in 1958, Ziegler said.

The Parry Mansion Dining Room. (Roy Ziegler)

With the help of its members and the greater New Hope community, the Historical Society set about restoring the home, said Ziegler.

"After seven years, numerous fundraisers and about $250,000 later, the home was transformed into the jewel in New Hope’s crown that it remains today," said Ziegler. "The popular architectural and interior designer, Charles Lamar, a founding member of The Preservation Society of Newport County in Rhode Island, and a designer of at least one Rockefeller home, donated his services to the Historical Society."

On May 6, 1973, Dr. Ricker’s dream of preserving New Hope’s history was realized as the Parry Mansion Museum was open to the public.