Historic Sugartown
Preserved 19th-century crossroads village with a general store, carriage museum, the circa-1805 Garrett House, and a working book bindery. Grounds are open daily 9 to 5 year-round; guided tours run Saturdays and Sundays May through November, with parking at 273 Boot Road.
Run Historic Sugartown? This page is yours to claim : fix the hours, swap the photo, and set the record straight.
Coming up here
Intro to Marbling
Float watercolors on a base fluid, swirl a pattern, then pull it onto paper. A full day in the 19th century book bindery on Spring Road, nine until three.
Bookbinding Weekends
Bookbinding I on Saturday and II on Sunday, nine to three both days, in Sugartown's working bindery. Built for people who want the whole sequence in one weekend.
Bookbinding Weekend: Levels I and II
Two days in the bindery. Saturday you hand-sew a blank book the way it was done from the first century to the 1800s; Sunday you go leather-bound with rounding, backing and headbanding. Six seats.
Pinhole Photography Workshop
Build a simple pinhole camera at Historic Sugartown, shoot a few test frames on the village grounds, then develop them in the darkroom. Supplies included, $70, and spaces are limited.
Advanced Book Restoration Workshop
A full day in the Spring Road bindery on board attachment, text block and corner repair, spine lifting and re-back. Book and materials included. You need a basic bookbinding class first.
Gold Tooling Workshop
Four hours in Historic Sugartown's bindery learning to decorate leather with gold leaf and foil, using the collection's own finishing tools. Six seats, $80, adults only.
More like this
Pennypacker Mills
Governor Samuel Pennypacker's mansion, a circa-1720 house redesigned and enlarged in 1901 by architect Arthur Brockie, runs free guided tours starting on the hour and half-hour, Tuesday through Sunday. The rooms are still fully furnished with the antiques he collected chasing early Pennsylvania history.
Historic Summerseat
A 1760s mansion that served as George Washington's headquarters December 8 to 14, 1776, and was later owned by Robert Morris and George Clymer, both signers of the Declaration and the Constitution. The Historic Morrisville Society opens it for $7 tours the first Saturday of each month, 10 to 1.
Historic Trappe
Three museum buildings along West Main Street in Trappe, the next borough over from Collegeville: the Speaker's House, the Muhlenberg House, and Dewees Tavern, whose five galleries hold Pennsylvania German furniture, fraktur, textiles, and pottery. Open Fridays through Sundays in summer, with Muhlenberg House tours departing on the hour from Dewees Tavern.
