Timeline

Peoples of the early and late Woodland-eras, in particular the Lenape, live in the region for thousands of years.

1682

William Penn sails to present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware, and he begins to purchase land from the Lenape. This land included what is now known as Philadelphia and northeast Pennsylvania, including the Doylestown area.

1684

Bucks County establishes their first courthouse and jail in what is now Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

1705

The County moves their seat to Bristol, Pennsylvania, where they built a new courthouse and jail.

1724

The Pennsylvania State Assembly passes an act permitting "Jeremiah Langhorne, William Biles, Joseph Kirkbride Jr., Dr. Thomas Watson, and Abraham Cunningham to build a new courthouse and jail."

1726

The third Bucks County Jail is built in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

1737

The Lenape are cheated out of over a million acres of land in the Walking Purchase. William Penn’s sons Thomas and John Penn, who were then the Pennsylvania colony’s proprietors, tricked the Lenape into accepting an incomplete deed from 1686 that specified the transfer of land measured by a walk of one and a half days. The land spanning the area from modern-day Wrightstown to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania was wrested from the Lenape.

1742

Cudjo and Jo, two freedmen, inherit the land that later became Doylestown from their former enslaver, Jeremiah Langhorne.

1751

Cudjo relinquishes lifetime rights to his land, and the estate of Jermiah Langhorne sells the land to Isabel Crawford.

1768

Jo retains ownership of his land until his death in 1768.

1813

Doylestown becomes the new County seat. The fourth courthouse and jail were built on the northeast corner of Main Street and Court Street.

1884

On February 12, the Borough of Doylestown purchases four acres of land (from Ashland Avenue to the east corner of Pine Street) from Dr. George T. Harvey for the construction of an expanded Bucks County Jail. The new jail, designed by architect Addison Hutton, was completed and opened later that December.

1894

The Bucks County Jail authorizes its first execution. On July 26, Wallace Burt was hanged for the murders of Samuel and Lena Rightly in 1893.

1914

The Jail authorizes its second and last death sentence. James Linzi was hanged on July 12 for attempted suicide and the murder of his wife, Ida Fry.

1940

Earl D. Handy becomes the first warden of the Bucks County Jail.

1962

Warden Handy dies of a sudden heart attack. Later in December, Major John D. Case becomes the second warden.

1977

Arthur Wallenstein becomes the third and last warden of the Bucks County Jail.

1978

In response to severe overcrowding and uninhabitable conditions at the Bucks County Jail, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the County Public Defender’s Office, and the Legal Aid Society file a class action suit against Bucks County on behalf of the incarcerated individuals.

1980

The County Commissioners approves a new site for a jail off South Easton Road.

1985

The Bucks County Correctional Facility opens, replacing the old Bucks County Jail.

1988

The former Bucks County Jail becomes the site of the Michener Art Museum, where new museum facilities were integrated with the remaining prison structures, including the former warden’s house, sally port, guard house, and jail walls.