Mercer Museum

Rising like a medieval fortress above the historic streets of Doylestown, the Mercer Museum is an astonishing monument to pre-industrial America and the eccentric genius of its creator. Built between 1913 and 1916 by Henry Chapman Mercer—an archaeologist, antiquarian, and leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement—the towering seven-story castle is constructed entirely of hand-mixed, poured-in-place concrete. Mercer was deeply alarmed by the rapid pace of the Industrial Revolution, which he felt was sweeping away the hand tools and folkways that had built the nation. He set out to collect these everyday implements before they vanished forever, ultimately gathering tens of thousands of objects.

To house his massive collection, Mercer eschewed traditional architectural plans. Instead, he crafted a 1:24 scale plaster model and hired a small crew of local laborers and a single horse named Lucy to pour the concrete around temporary wooden molds. The resulting structure is a labyrinth of vaulted ceilings, winding stairways, and irregular alcoves. Mercer chose concrete not for its aesthetic value, but for its absolute resistance to fire, having been haunted by the catastrophic fires that destroyed other major collections of his era.

The interior of the museum is a dizzying, vertical cavern of curiosities that defies standard curation. Rather than being neatly tucked into glass cases, Mercer's artifacts are suspended directly from the walls, ceilings, and balconies of a towering central atrium. Visitors looking up into the void are met with the surreal sight of a Conestoga wagon, a whaling boat, wooden coffins, horse-drawn carriages, and weather vanes dangling precariously in mid-air.

Branching off the central court are dozens of small, themed rooms dedicated to over sixty early American trades, from blacksmithing and shoemaking to horn-smithing and cider-making. Every surface of the building reflects Mercer's personal touch, including his signature decorative tiles embedded in the concrete walls and the visible grain patterns of the wooden boards used to mold the concrete.