Milford was an early "planned" community, laid out after the Revolutionary War by Judge John Biddis. Biddis was a riding circuit court judge responsible for much of northeast Pennsylvania. When he purchased the land between the Sawkill and Vandermark creeks, he chose to model the street and alley pattern after Philadelphia, the nation’s first capital.
The streets were named after Biddis’ children and alleys were named after fruit trees and berry bushes found in the area. The thought and care put into the community’s initial layout is evident today, with several public squares, wide streets lined with shade trees and attractive municipal improvements.
Milford is the county seat of Pike County, PA, (Atlantic magazine once called Milford "the prettiest county seat in America”) and the northern gateway to the 70,000 acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. It is also the unofficial capital of the greater Delaware River Highlands region. The Delaware River Highlands is comprised of five counties in PA, NY and NJ on either side of the upper Delaware River valley, which is situated between the Pocono Mountains to the southwest and the Catskill Mountains to the north.
The town’s stoplight (there is only one) is exactly 75 miles from New York City, 125 miles from Philadelphia and 50 miles from Scranton, PA.
Several
of the greatest American architects of the 19th century have examples of their
work in Milford. Grey Towers National Historic Landmark was designed by Richard
Morris Hunt to be a summer home for the Pinchot family and is now open to the
public, operated by the US Forest Service. James Pinchot was a great patron
of the arts in the mid and late 19th century and his son, Gifford, was the first
head of the US Forest Service, served two terms as Governor of Pennsylvania
and is widely credited for having launched the conservation movement in the
US.
Calvert Vaux designed Milford’s old post office, which is now the Forest Hall Gallery, at the corner of Broad and Harford Streets. Hunt & Hunt, the sons of Richard Morris Hunt, designed the balance of what is now, in conjunction with the Vaux building, known as Forest Hall. Originally built to be the summer school for Yale University’s School of Forestry, today the building houses several antique shops and galleries.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., designed part of the Milford Cemetery and its similarity to other Olmsted-designed landscapes is evident. Private residences in the area include work by McKim, Mead & White, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian homes and many beautiful examples of 19th century vernacular architecture.
Milford’s tradition of exceptional architectural and design continues today, most recently reflected in the Peter Bohlin-designed Solomon Smith Barney office, which opened in 2002, and the historic restoration of the Hotel Fauchere, which will open late in 2005. Since 1997, a not-for-profit civic association, the Milford Enhancement Committee, has worked with urban designer and landscape architect Tom Schraudenbach, of the Philadelphia-based Delta Group. The Enhancement Committee, with the Delta Group, have led a wide ranging long-term project to improve public spaces in Milford, particularly along the main commercial streets, with bluestone sidewalks, granite curbing, new landscaping and pedestrian lights. Several years ago, the community had a heated, but good-natured, debate over the style of pedestrian lights to be installed. An informal election was held and a proposed Colonial fixture defeated the proposed Victorian fixture, by a slim margin.
In
the early part of the 20th century, Pike County was a location for many silent
films, including those starring the Gish sisters, Pearl White (the Perils of
Pauline heroine), Lionel Barrymore and Mary Pickford. D.W. Griffith directed
two of his first films Pike County. Every October, Milford hosts the Black Bear
Film Festival, organized by film aficionados and industry professionals who
live in the area.
Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Jules Offenbach, Sarah Bernhardt, Ogden Nash, Robert Frost and many others vacationed or visited the area. Zane Grey lived and wrote in Pike County; today his home in Lackawaxen is a museum operated by the National Park Service.
New York Tribune Editor Horace Greeley’s Sylvania Colony — a utopian community associated with the mid-19th century "free love" movement — was founded in Pike County. Philosopher Charles Peirce — the founder of pragmatism—built his estate in Westfall Township, just outside of Milford, also in an effort to create a utopian community. Peirce’s papers are housed at The Columns Museum, operated by the Pike County Historical Society.
One of the Columns’ most famous artifacts is the "bloody Lincoln Flag," upon which the dying President’s head rested after he was shot. Visitors and Lincoln scholars from all over the world come to Milford to see the Lincoln Flag and the related Lincoln exhibits.
About 40 percent of Pike County is state or federal forest, park or gameland. Milford itself is the north gate to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a 70,000-acre National Park. The Milford fluviarchy (a network of waterfalls) is one of the largest in the United States. Every stream flowing into the Delaware River must cut through the high escarpment on either side of the river. This is, quite literally, the "high land" that gives the region its "Delaware River Highlands" Name. Several of the waterfalls are open to the public.
HOLIDAY LIGHTS… MILFORD, PA.