George School, Pennsylvania

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

Post office in northwestern Middletown Township bordering the Newtown Township line, one mile south of Newtown on Durham Road (Route 152). The site of George School is on the old Worth plantation, formerly known as Sharon Park and Sharon station of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad. John M. George residing in Overbrook, Pennsylvania, died February 11, 1887. A codicil to his will, dated November 29, 1886, directed that his residuary estate be paid over to the treasurer of the Yearly Meeting at Fifteenth and Race Streets “for the purpose of erecting a boarding school for the education of children, members of the Society of Friends and such others as a Committee appointed by the Yearly Meeting may think proper. Said Boarding School to be located at some suitable place in Eastern Pennsylvania….” A “Sub-Committee on Location,” after visiting a number of farms in both Bucks and Chester Counties, were in 1889… “largely united in preferring a location near Newtown, Pennsylvania,” a portion of the Worth Farm of about 145 acres. It was not until April 10, 1891, however, that the present site was selected for the new school. Isaac Eyre, of Newtown, was anxious to have the school located near Newtown, and without his influence, it may not have been located in even Bucks County. The school was opened November 6, 1893. George School for a time was called the “John M. George School” and the present name evolved from it with the establishment of a post office about 1896 and a station (formerly Sharon) on the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad (leased by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and known as the Newtown Branch), both of which were early named George School.1

Source

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

  1. Information supplied by George M. Hart, Doylestown, Pa. []

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