Pictures of Newtown, Pa

Court Street

Victorian House in Newtown

State Street in 2008

  One of my favorite nearby places to stop is Newtown, Pa.  I have posted some pictures from the Newtown area before, but here are a few shots of the main street downtown.  I visited here a few times as a child, but didn’t really grow to fully appreciate it until I was a student at Bucks County Community College.   BCCC was not right in the town, but was nearby, and sometimes I would go through the center of Newtown on my way to and from classes.  State Street is the main street running through the center of town, filled with cafes and specialty shops.  Sycamore Street also has shops and cafes, but it is less pedestrian friendly than State Street.  On the other streets in town are the old small town houses, many of them Victorian in appearance. 

  Many of the stores I remember are now gone from State Street, although it seems most of the shops are filled.  The small town main street and the Mom and Pop type stores that lined it largely became a thing of the past in post-World War II America, although it didn’t entirely go away.  They were largely replaced by supermarket centers and shopping malls, as suburbanization and the car culture reshaped the land.  However, in Newtown, there was a Rexall Drug store (now a Starbucks), there was the Colonial Five and Ten (now an art supply store), and Blum’s Department Store (now a Gap).   All of these stores were still lining State Street until at least the late 1980s, although they are long gone.   Some of the other small town businesses have managed to remain to this day.  One is the Newtown Theatre, which is known for its antiquity. I haven’t seen a movie there since I was a child, but it remember it stood apart from the movie theatres I was used to going to. The exterior is still maintained as is in its classic form, and probably the interior as well.  Another such business is Ned’s Cigar Store, which maintains the appearance and smell of an old cigar store, or what I imagine one was like.  It still has wooden doors and wooden floors.  I don’t remember seeing an American Indian statue in there, which is a common feature of cigar stores.  But this is the age of political correctness.  Almost directly across the street from Ned’s, there is now a Tobacco Leaf store.  I have seen a few of these in shopping centers and strip malls.  I don’t know how the old cigar store is faring against the direct competition.

  Many things have changed in and around Newtown over the years.  Up until the early 1980’s, most of the area surrounding the town was farmland.  After that, the area built up quickly and the farms were almost instantly replaced by housing developments and a few new shopping centers.  But the borough itself has managed to stay the same, at least in its general appearance, and continues to draw people in from all over.