Blueberry Hill

The land at the northeast corner of Bristol and Easton roads was part of William Penn’s land grant from King Charles II of England. In 1684 it was deeded to its first owner, John Gray. By the late 1700s, the land was owned by the Fretz family, and Christian Fretz built the core of the structures which survive today.
His well-known hotel and tavern, known as Fretz Valley Inn, welcomed guests from 1812 to 1846. Christian’s grandson, Phillip, erected the present buildings in 1871. The renewed Fretz Farm included a seven-gabled Italianate-Victorian house with projecting bays and small pavilions, and a cavernous barn, built on the site of the inn.
Phillip lived there until his new home, Fretz Mansion, was built in 1879. (Located on the opposite side of Easton Road, the Fretz Mansion eventually became the Tabor Children’s Home and today is being converted into office space, a preschool and a senior living facility.)

One hundred years later, the Fretz Farm, including barn, farmhouse, carriage house, and gazebo, was owned by Carl Buehler, who renamed it Blueberry Hill because of the many blueberry bushes on the property. In 1985, The House on Blueberry Hill” at 1715 S. Easton Road was the VIA’s Doylestown Hospital Designer House. After functioning as a picturesque and upscale restaurant and bed and breakfast for a decade, the “Inn on Blueberry Hill” was converted for commercial use as the “Shoppes at Blueberry Hill.”
Today the site is home to Meridian Bank, Verizon, Dunkin Donuts, a pre-school and other smaller businesses.
Doylestownhistorical.org

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