When was the last time you actually stopped in the middle of Carversville, or crossed the footbridge at Lumberville just to look back at the Pennsylvania side? For a lot of people who have owned homes off Aquetong or up on Sugan for a decade or more, the answer is a shrug. The villages have been scenery on the way to somewhere else.
That is quietly changing. The Carversville Inn is open again after sitting dark since 2020. The Lumberville General Store is being written up on best-of lists as the oldest still-operating general store in Pennsylvania. And the township is redrawing the civic map around both places at the same time, with a new trail grant, a proposed roundabout, and a Comprehensive Plan update entering its final phase. Late summer is the moment to notice all of it, because for two more weekends the town squares are still functional in the way they were designed to be.
The Square in Carversville, Restored
The center of Carversville is small enough to walk in five minutes. It is a stone bridge, a church, a dental office, a general store, and an inn, arranged around what locals call the Town Square. The Town Square is home to the Carversville Inn, a restaurant which dates back to 1813, the dental office of Dr. Howard Barsky, and the Carversville General Store, and the Historic Carversville Society runs a schedule that includes Carversville Day with its "pet parade," Films in the Field with old movies projected on the side of the general store once a month during the summer, and Carolling in the Square at Christmas.
The inn is the news. It sat vacant for years, and the reopening was not a foregone conclusion. On July 19 the Solebury board of supervisors unanimously approved preliminary as final plans with conditions for the renovation and expansion of the historic Carversville Inn, which had sat vacant since 2020, a victim of the pandemic; the approval brought prolonged applause from the audience. The new owners committed to returning it to "a tasteful country inn and restaurant, catering to visitors from afar, but with a particular focus on local patrons." After a long renovation, the inn and its restaurant opened following a two-year renovation project, with owners Milan Lint and Mitch Berlin replacing the rotting two-story wooden porch pillars lining the front of the building and installing new flooring and a porch railing.
"Carversville is a pretty tight-knit place and losing both the general store and the inn during a pandemic has been a real body blow to the community. I see this as the beginning of a new era where our town square is restored to the gem it has always been." — resident testimony at the 2022 supervisors meeting that approved the restoration plan
Across the square, the general store still functions the way general stores are supposed to. The building that now houses the Carversville General Store and Post Office was once the carriage shed and stable for patrons of the adjacent Carversville Inn, which was built in 1813 in the Federal style with two floors and a gabled roof, and had a third floor and porch added in 1859. The Films in the Field projections on the side of the store are the specific reason to build the visit around a Saturday evening rather than a Sunday afternoon.
Fleecydale, the Connector Nobody Notices
The road out of Carversville toward the river is Fleecydale, and it may be the most under-used four miles of scenery in the township. The Paunacussing Creek, also called Fleecydale, runs through Carversville and meets the Delaware River at Lumberville. The road follows the creek the entire way. It is narrow, one lane in effect, canopied, and mostly empty on a summer afternoon.
A few things to look for as you drive it slowly:
- The stone bridge in the village itself, which is on the National Register alongside the wider historic district. The Carversville Historic District is a national historic district in Solebury Township that includes 57 contributing buildings in notable examples of the Late Victorian and Federal styles, with notable buildings including the Overpeck Homestead from around 1703 to 1716, the Fred Clark Art Museum from 1873, and the Carversville Christian Church from 1866, added to the National Register in 1978.
- The scale of the village itself. Carversville is home to some 100 residents and is protected by a Historic District Ordinance which prevents the area from being marred by overdevelopment of new homes and businesses. That ordinance is why the drive still looks the way it does.
- The pull-offs where the creek widens. There are two or three obvious ones. You do not need a plan.
The point of Fleecydale is that it is the connective tissue between the two villages the rest of this post is about. If you have only ever driven from Solebury to the river via 32 or 202, you have missed it.
Lumberville, Older Than the Country
At the mouth of the Paunacussing sits the Lumberville General Store, which has quietly become the reason people from Doylestown and Princeton drive out here on a Saturday. Lumberville General Store, which first opened in 1770, is among the top ten old-fashioned general stores to visit in Pennsylvania, and is the oldest general store still operating in the Keystone State, meaning it is older than the country itself.
What you actually do there: coffee on the patio, a sandwich in one of the three indoor rooms, then a walk. Housed in a historic building constructed in 1770, the store offers a cozy atmosphere with both indoor and outdoor seating, and a menu of breakfast and lunch options including specialty blended coffees, teas, house-made ice creams, baked goods, and deli items, with seating available in the main café area, the Library, or the Parlor, plus outdoor patios and Adirondack chairs. The walk everyone should take at least once a summer is the one across the pedestrian bridge to Bulls Island on the New Jersey side, which is thirty seconds from the store's front door. The store's location, near the Delaware River and the pedestrian bridge to Bulls Island, makes it a convenient stop for those exploring the area. The towpath itself runs directly past. The Delaware Canal Towpath Trail runs right alongside this stretch of River Road, and Lumberville General Store has become the go-to refueling station for anyone covering miles on two wheels or two feet.
One insider timing note. Yellow jackets can be a nuisance in the fall months, so if you are visiting in September or October, the indoor rooms might be the smarter choice, and spring and summer are the prime seasons for patio dining. August is the last clean patio month before that shifts.
The Civic Edits Happening While You Are on the Towpath
The reason to pay attention to the villages right now is that Solebury's public map is being redrawn around them in a way that will not be undone. Four items are moving at once:
| What | When | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-National Night Out Celebration | Monday, Aug. 3, 5–8 p.m. | Laurel Park, hosted with Solebury & New Hope Police, local volunteer fire companies, and the Central Bucks Special Response Team |
| TASA trail grant awarded to Solebury Township | Awarded ahead of the 2026 construction phase | $1,497,400 to support a new multimodal trail with the first phase of the future Solebury Green park |
| PennDOT roundabout proposal, Route 202 at Route 179 | Virtual public meeting held June 9 | Video posted to PennDOT's YouTube channel |
| Comprehensive Plan update | Final phase as of March 2026 | Township-wide, guided by Bucks County Planning Commission and Tom Comitta Associates |
Each of these is on the township site. The Aug. 3 Pre-National Night Out runs 5 to 8 p.m. with Solebury and New Hope Police, local Volunteer Fire Companies, the Central Bucks Special Response Team, and includes emergency vehicles, a bounce house, face painting, a K-9 demo, a dunk tank, games, food trucks, and carnival concessions. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation awarded Solebury Township a Transportation Alternatives Set Aside (TASA) grant in the amount of $1,497,400 to support construction of a new multimodal trail in conjunction with the first phase of the future Solebury Green park. PennDOT hosted a virtual meeting on its proposal for a roundabout at the intersection of US Route 202 and Route 179 on June 9, and the video is available on YouTube. The Township, in conjunction with the Bucks County Planning Commission, Tom Comitta Associates, and Township staff, has worked since January 2024 to update the 10-year Comprehensive Plan, and as of March 2026 is entering the final phase of the update process.
Read those four rows together and a pattern emerges. Solebury is spending real money on connecting the villages to the population centers by foot and by bike, and it is rethinking the two intersections that funnel most of the car traffic through the township. If you use the towpath, the Route 202 corridor, or Solebury Green, the choices being made this summer will shape how you move through Solebury for the next decade.
A Two-Village Saturday, In Order
For a reader who wants a concrete plan rather than a list of updates:
- Late morning coffee and a sandwich at the Lumberville General Store, on the patio. Walk the pedestrian bridge to Bulls Island and back. Give it forty minutes.
- Drive Fleecydale west along the Paunacussing to Carversville. Stop at least once at a pull-off.
- Afternoon on the Town Square. Sit on the porch at the Carversville Inn if it is open, or grab something at the general store.
- If the calendar lines up with Films in the Field, come back after dinner. The projection is on the side of the general store.
- If you have kids and the date is Aug. 3, swap this whole plan for Laurel Park at 5 p.m.
For visitors who want to widen the loop, Bowman's Tower, a 110-foot observation tower built in 1930 to commemorate the lookout point used by soldiers during the Revolutionary War, offers a panoramic view of Solebury Township and the surrounding countryside, and Aquetong Spring Park is a 48-acre park with many natural trails and a paved trail connector that parallels U.S. Route 202, functioning as a recreational, interpretive and educational resource in a passive setting.
The villages are working again. That is the point. When the Carversville Inn went dark five years ago, the town square went with it, and the last two summers have been the first ones in a long time when both squares have been fully lit up. It is worth spending an afternoon inside your own township to see it while the light is right.
If you own property in Solebury and are thinking about what a shifting civic map means for your specific corner of the township, Bucks Luxury Living is available for a private consultation. Request a Private Consultation to speak directly with Lisa.
