Touring the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works - Doylestown, PA

Doylestown, the county seat of our dear Bucks County, PA,

is the locale of a great museum called the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works.

We toured it, totally loved it, and now I'm excited to show you my photos!

Henry Chapman Mercer founded and built the place in 1898,

and served as its director until he died in 1930.

It's an attractive poured-concrete building with several tall chimneys.

Mercer drew his design inspiration from the Spanish architecture

of California missions in San Juan Capistrano and Santa Barbara.

Here's a close-up of the detailed tile work on one of the chimneys.

We did the self-guided tour for an affordable $5 each

and learned quite a bit about this "working history" museum.

I really recommend a visit if you've an interest in tile.

Many of the original tile designs came from iron fireplace fire-backs.

These tiles with their muted earth tones were my favorites.

An example of a tile mold for this woman hand-dipping candles.

An illustration of the process from mold to finished product.

Philadelphia's own Ben Franklin is represented.

Molds for a grape harvest, left, and Moses with the Ten Commandments on the right.

We attended this year's Tile Festival, which was wonderful!

You can read my blog post about it here.

Also in Doylestown is Henry Mercer's collection of pre-industrial age artifacts,

housed in the Mercer Museum, which I blogged about here.

Mercer's home, located right next to the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works,

is called Fonthill Castle, which we plan to tour sometime soon.

(stay tuned!)

Links for your research:

Moravian Pottery & Tile Works

Mercer Museum

Fonthill Castle