Free The Delaware Canal by Marie Murphy Duess

canal. It was a day’s trip from Bristol to Yardley, and they usually tied up for the night and stabled their horses there. The Continental Hotel and the White Swan (now the Yardley Inn) were the stopping points at the Yardley lock. Both places are still popular establishments today. During recent renovations at the Continental Hotel, a secret room was found in the lower level of the building that confirmed the legend that the Continental had once hidden escaping slaves from the South.
    In Yardley (then called Yardleyville), there was a store on Edgewater Avenue that sat along the towpath. The owner of the store, a Mrs. Reed, would go down to the canal to see what the boatmen needed and then bring their orders to them; this was especially helpful if the captain wasn’t stopping in town and wanted to move on to the next lock before nightfall.
    Between the major towns, some of the residents along the canal would offer provisions—baked bread and produce—and the LC&N made arrangements for mules to be stabled in barns along the way. Where the canal ran parallel to the river with just the towpath between them, bridges were provided so that the mule drivers could unhitch their teams and lead them across the bridge to the stables.

    Homes located on the canal often accommodated the boatmen with food, drink and stabling for their mules. This home was originally built in 1740 and was licensed as Beaumont’s Tavern. Because of its proximity to the canal and the remnants of a bridge nearby, it is likely that it stabled mules for the night and offered provisions to the canallers. Courtesy of Jim and Tina Greenwood .
    Once the canallers arrived in New Hope, they had their choice of spots to imbibe. Originally called Coryell’s Ferry, the village was a major encampment during the Revolution, and in the years following the war, development in the village grew when merchant Benjamin Parry made it his home and built his Hope Mills there. When the mills burned down, he rebuilt and renamed them New Hope Mills, and eventually the town adopted the name. The building of the Delaware Division Canal helped to establish New Hope as a central district. Four locks were located in the borough, including an outlet lock to the New Jersey side of the river connecting to the Raritan and Delaware Canal.
    The River House, which was built in 1794, was a favorite stop for the boatmen. After the canal years, it became known as Chez Odette’s (owned by a French actress who starred in movies and onstage and who made her home in New Hope), but three major floods in the early 2000s finally closed this famous restaurant.
    A rather popular brothel called the Bucket of Blood was always accommodating to the canallers who were so inclined to accept hospitality there. Although the renowned Logan Inn is located on the canal, it was a hotel for more sophisticated tastes and pocketbooks, and boatmen rarely, if ever, slept off their boats. Established in 1722 by John Wells, the founder of New Hope, the Logan Inn is one of the oldest continuously run taverns in Bucks County and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington stayed at the Logan numerous times, and during the summer of 1777, General Benedict Arnold headquartered there—before he became a notorious traitor. Since New Hope was the halfway mark between Easton and Bristol, the boatmen restocked many of their supplies there. The Defiance Cigar Store and T.E. Watson’s provided cigars and chewing tobacco, and in the borough close to the canal there were livery stables, a harness maker, a foundry, a flax factory, a fishery, a shoemaker, a milliner, a lumber merchant and four doctors. A good deal of mule trading took place in New Hope as well.
    Once they were north of New Hope, the boatmen passed through several small communities that, before the appearance of the canal, had been sleepy little villages. One of them was Centre