Edison, Pennsylvania

How did Edison, Pennsylvania get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Edison, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.

Village in southwestern Doylestown Township on Neshaminy Creek and the old Dyers Road (Route 611), first known as Bridge Point from the picturesque old seven-arch stone bridge over the creek, built in 1800. The village may have been called Bridge Point earlier, as the bridge of 1800 stands on the site of another erected in 1764. The “Point” part of the name was suggested by a peculiar land formation on which the village is built. When it was made a post office about 1880, it was renamed in honor of Thomas A. Edison. Early in the last century Edison was a manufacturing center of no mean importance, due largely to the enterprise of Dr. Samuel Moore, a native of Cumberland County, N. J. He came to Bridge Point in 1808, bought the old grist and oil mills, established a woolen factory and saw mill and built shops, a school house and several dwellings, including the fine mansion on the eminence overlooking the valley. In the school house, a two-story building, a private school was conducted for many years. It was later purchased by Artist George Willman, who changed it into a studio. Dr. Moore was a member of Congress from 1819 to 1822, taking Samuel D. Ingham’s place after he resigned, and in 1824 was appointed Director of the Mint at Philadelphia. Edison has undergone many changes in recent years. The most important was the relocation of Route 611 and the construction four years ago of a mile of new three-track pavement over the Neshaminy. The old bridge and much of the village was left to the west of the new highway.

Wilkshire is a colony of bungalows east of Edison. It was a real estate development upon an extensive scale that never fully matured.

Source: MacReynolds, George. Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, 2nd Edition. Doylestown, PA: The Bucks County Historical Society, 1955.

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