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Published: November 3rd 2008
It was touring outside of Philly day. I had my eyes on this small town that appeared to be a good day trip, Doylestown, about 40 min-drive NW of Philly. What drew me here was historical buildings and art galleries.
We visited Mercer museum first. The building was essentially concrete entirely with exception to certain parts. The museum was filled with gazillion things invented by Mercer(not sure if it was solely his collection). The museum was built to be a place where Mercer could showcase his invention to later generations. He really taught ahead of time and wanted to make sure people who came after him get to see things that were created in the past. Most of the stuff here were household items, transportation, and miscellaneous things. We also booked the tour at Font Hill museum in the early afternoon so we didn't have much time at the Mercer museum. A short drive from Mercer museum and we were in Font Hill museum. I called it castle because it looks like a castle. There were large fields all around the castle. When we got inside we were told that photography was not permitted so we had to leave our
cameras behind. It sure would be very interesting pictures for you guys to see. At 1:30 pm, everyone who signed up for the tour showed up and our tour guide was ready to roll. It was a small group of 8-9 people, we were given a basic history of the castle and plan of the tour before we headed into Mercer's living room. Yes, this castle belonged to Mercer whose collections are showcased at Mercer museum. I don't remember all the details but roughly there were about hundred something rooms in this castle, each room had its own key and all the keys are kept in key boxes(just like in the hotels), the entire castle made of concrete, the entire castle was decorated with colorful tiles Mercer created, and Mercer's dog had his own stairs. Well, the reason that the entire castle was built with concrete was that Mercer wanted to show to people that his castle was fire proof. He made his point by having camp fires on the roof top of the castle in the winter(?). The tiles were very beautiful and personal. Letters on the tiles were either someone significant to Mercer or messages regarding origin of
his aspirations. Each tiles was labeled with numbers as a way to keep track of his collections. During the tour, I heard the guy in our group commented on Mercer's craziness. Doug totally agreed with him but he also seemed to like certain aspects of the castle.
After the tour we went to the next door, Maravian Pottery & Tile Works, where they showed how tiles are made traditionally and you can purchase them also if you like.
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