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Upon her death, the Trustees of the Mercer Fonthill Museum determined to operate Fonthill Castle as a historic house museum and contracted with the Bucks County Historical Society to provide professional care and management. In 1990, the Bucks County Orphans court appointed the Trustees of the Bucks County Historical Society as the permanent Trustees of the Mercer Fonthill Museum thus solidifying the commitment to professionalism at the site. Fonthill Museum remains a separate legal entity from the Historical Society. Fonthill Castle offers one-hour guided tours through a portion of Henry Mercer’s historic home. Coldwell Banker Realty and Guaranteed Rate Affinity, LLC share common ownership and because of this relationship the brokerage may receive a financial or other benefit. You are not required to use Guaranteed Rate Affinity, LLC as a condition of purchase or sale of any real estate.
The castle’s construction was an experiment
From the vaulted ceilings to the polished floors, Mercer designed and oversaw it all himself in an experiment he wasn’t sure would work. He even told people that an architect who cared about his reputation would never make such risky choices. The museum is one of three poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer. The others include his home Fonthill and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, both of which are located one mile from the museum.
“Fonthill,” Henry Chapman Mercer House
The castle serves as an early example of reinforced concrete architecture and features forty-four rooms, over two hundred windows and eighteen fireplaces. Fonthill Castle’s interior features Mercer’s renowned, handcrafted ceramic tiles designed at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. On the east side of town is the remarkable cluster of buildings that marks the impact of the Mercer family on their hometown. These include the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works (BU41), Henry Chapman Mercer's residence, as well as the house of his brother William, now the headquarters of the Bucks County Heritage Conservancy. His other focus was the restoration of the lost techniques of German craft tile.
Arrive early for your visit
In addition to the tiles Mercer made, you’ll see lots of examples from around the world. There are distinctive Delft blue tiles from the Netherlands, Chinese roof tiles, and Persian tiles. There are even 2000-year-old cuneiform tablets from Babylon incorporated in one of the columns. Mercer believed in his vision and the material he thought was best—concrete was cheap, fireproof, and easily molded. Since a visit here is still one of the top things to do in Doylestown a century later, the risk paid off.
Visiting the Mercer Museum: One of Pennsylvania’s Most Unique and Quirky Collections
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. In fact, six floors of history await to be explored and discovered at the Mercer Museum, featuring 50,000 artifacts representing 60 early American trades.
Built to house Henry Mercer's extensive collection of objects representing everyday life in the pre-industrial age. By clicking SUBMIT, I agree a Coldwell Banker Agent may contact me by phone or text message including by automated means about real estate services,and that I can access real estate services without providing my phone number. I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The historic castle portion of the Mercer Museum has an elevator and offers partial accessibility due to narrow passageways. It is not climate-controlled and may experience fluctuations in temperature and humidity, depending on external weather conditions.
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The welcome center, which was once the property’s garage, is just a few steps from the parking area. It’s best to arrive about minutes before the scheduled start of your tour to leave time to check in. Wealthy and curious, Mercer traveled the world for personal enjoyment and in his work as a collector, museum curator, and archaeologist. From England to Italy and beyond, his travels inspired the floor plan and details of Fonthill.
A 110-year-old home made of solid concrete presents an unusual visiting environment. Coupled with some low ceilings, a visit on an overcast day could mean a relatively low amount of light inside. Additionally, the first floor has air conditioning, but other spaces only have a fan, so it can get warm on a summer afternoon. Consider the overall conditions and what you’re comfortable with when planning a visit. A video in the visitor’s center explains how Mercer drew inspiration from castles along the Rhine River, and the tour gives even more detail.
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We particularly liked the decorative tiles at the tops of columns and crisscrossing the ceiling vaults. With 44 rooms, 32 stairwells, 18 fireplaces, and 21 chimneys, this home was built to stand out. Many of those spaces are covered in tiles that Mercer designed and made himself or collected from around the world. Tours at Fonthill are packed with information about the castle and its creative owner and builder, Henry Chapman Mercer. It’s one of our favorite sites in Bucks County, and we have visited the distinctive property several times to soak in all its artistry in different seasons.
The Mercers would host lavish dinner parties there, with guests like Groucho Marx, Isadora Duncan and the Von Trapp family. When the family passed away, the mansion fell into despair, until the 1980s when the Heritage Conservancy took over. Today, you can schedule a guided tour of the mansion, or, rent it out for your wedding. The National Historical Landmark and “working history” museum produces handmade tiles and mosaics in the same style of Mercer’s original designs. Guests can even watch artisans throughout the entire tile-making process. Adjacent to Fonthill, the Tile Works still produces the Moravian tiles seen throughout the house.
Walking into the castle itself, you can’t help but notice the grand five-story atrium. Of the museum’s collection of 30,000 pieces, over 60% is on display, with many items still in the same layout that Mercer himself placed them over 80 years ago. Our first guide was fascinated by Mercer and his career, and she added lots of information about his travels and family background to her story. Our second guide was a lover of the architecture and tiles, pointing out many details that we might have otherwise overlooked. If there is an aspect of the site and history that particularly interests you, there is plenty of time for questions throughout the tour.
Guests will delight in the sounds, scents and scenes of the holidays during an evening of free musical performances, family activities, and a visit with Santa, as well as the traditional burning of the greens. The very back corner of the museum also contains a small section of Native American artifacts that were used primarily by the Lanape (or Delaware) Indian Tribe. A tilemaker at heart, Mercer also built the The Tileworks, a factory built with the idea of early Spanish mission and monastery architecture in mind. Receive the latest articles, features, news, discounts, and more straight to your inbox. Both of our guides at Fonthill were knowledgeable and shared similar types of information about the castle and Mercer. However, guides have some latitude in what they focus on as they move through the property because there are so many different things to highlight.
These interests were arrayed on the family estate, “Aldie” (BU42), where he constructed an early tile kiln. It offers limited accessibility with steep stairs and narrow, uneven passages throughout the interior of the site. Overall, though, I really enjoyed my visit to the Mercer Museum in Doylestown.
Whether it was incorporating ideas about wood paneling that he loved in a 12th-century English manor house or copying elements of Gothic and Byzantine architecture, Mercer brought a little bit of Europe to then-rural Bucks County. Besides being an archaeologist, Mercer was a self styled anthropologist, ethnographer, and perhaps most importantly, collector. When Mercer began to collect artifacts for his museum, his aunt informed him that she had a vast collection of medieval armor. Mercer was delighted, as he wanted the Mercer Museum to contain not only relics of American history, but world history as well. The armor was kept in storage in Boston while Mercer continued to collect.
Operating in the state of New York as GR Affinity, LLC in lieu of the legal name Guaranteed Rate Affinity, LLC. Please use and/or share my information with a Coldwell Banker agent to contact me about my real estate needs. Many of the rooms on the second floor of Fonthill Castle do not have air-conditioning, although they have fans. They tend to fluctuate in temperature more and may reflect the temperature of the outdoors more than typical climate-controlled areas.
The castle contains built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles, made by Mercer at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The castle is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself. Fonthill is located north of the town center of Doylestown, on the west side of East Court Street, just south of the tile works. Its appearance is loosely based on European medieval castles, and has walls of concrete 2 feet (0.61 m) thick. The exterior is adorned by decorative tiles, the interior is furnished and decorated with Chapman's collections.
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