McMasters House

The McMasters House at 13 West Centre Avenue in Newtown, at the corner of Sycamore Street and Centre Avenue, was built about 1833 by John Bond and was later named for early owner Robert McMasters, a blacksmith who purchased it in 1863. McMasters built and operated a blacksmith shop on the property and later sold the shop to Sylvester "Wes" Dyer. Blacksmiths were numerous in Newtown because horses were central to travel and to residents' livelihoods. The house is unusual because it shares its foundation with the footing of the adjacent Centre Avenue Bridge, built in 1796. That bridge, also called the Centre Street Bridge, is the oldest remaining bridge in Bucks County and the fourth oldest in Pennsylvania. In 1997, several concerned groups saved the house from demolition, and Bruce Lesser renovated it from several apartments into commercial office space. The renovated building stands at one of Newtown's gateways as a reminder of what the town was like more than a century ago.

Pennsylvania · United States