Events set Mondays in April
The New Hope Historical Society has announced its lineup for the seventh annual Speaker Series slated for Mondays in April. The speakers include three local authors and a longtime New Hope resident and native.
On April 6, Roy Ziegler, author of the new publication, “New Hope, Pennsylvania — River Town Passages,” will discuss his experiences writing his first book and the fascinating things he learned about New Hope’s history during the process. Mr. Ziegler is the immediate past president of the New Hope Historical Society and serves on its board of directors.
New Hope native and longtime resident, John Brillman, will be featured on April 13. He was born in an early 19th-century house on Old Mill Road in New Hope. He has a passion for native plants and has become a self-taught, expert landscaper. He had worked on many homes of Quaker families in New Hope, and has a wealth of information and stories of his own and from his father and grandfather about the homes and families to relate.
Herb Millman and John Dwyer, The Deco Guys, and theater critics, are back by popular demand to continue their story about the Broadway Theater in New Hope from the 1950s to the present on April 20. They promise a special surprise for the audience. They are authors of books on Art Deco lighting. This discussion will be held on the stage of the Bucks County Playhouse, courtesy of Ralph Miller.
The Speaker Series will close on April 27 with a discussion about New Hope in the Civil War era by the Rev. Joseph F. DiPaolo, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Wayne, Pa.. He had been pastor of the United Methodist Church in New Hope prior to his current assignment. The Rev. DiPaolo is an historian and serves as president of the Historical Society of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the author of “A Hotbed of Secession: New Hope in the Civil War, That They May Be One,” and “Not Built by Human Hands.”
The Speaker Series is held at 5 p.m. The April 20 session will be held at the Bucks County Playhouse and the April 27 talk will be given at the Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church on Aquetong Road. The other two events will be held at the Parry Mansion, 45 S. Main St., New Hope.
Admission is free to members. The cost for nonmembers in $15. Reservations are required and may be obtained by calling the society at 215-862-5652 or at [email protected].

