Poultry Farms. The Doylestown area was once rife with poultry production.
• The Pine Run Poultry Yards (shown here in an 1876 image) were located near the current Water Wheel Tavern at 4424 Old Easton Road. The farm was owned by Dr. Alexander Dickie, a physician practicing in Doylestown.
• The Nostaw Poultry Yards were located in Doylestown Borough at 277 Maple Ave., owned by George Watson. In 1913, the business advertised “Cockerel and pullet mated pens of the best standard strains.” They also sold eggs for setting: $2 per 15 and “will refund money for all unfertile eggs returned to us whole.”
• In 1923, Cecil J. Toor, a professor at the National Farm School (now Delaware Valley University) owned and operated a chicken farm at 202 Harvey Ave. He then moved to Doylestown Township where he established the Sandy Ridge Poultry Farm.
• In 1925, William “Chick” Savage started with a small flock of laying hens. His Solebury Township business grew and became Savage Farm Hatchery. In the late 1940s, Savage bought the shop at 47 W. State St. (now the Patricia Hutton Galleries) to sell his chicks to area farmers.
• According to The Intelligencer in September 1949, “Hy-Cross Hatcheries has completed an elaborate plant on Swamp Road [at Center Street] and has located the home office for the New England and Middle Atlantic States here.” The business “was started in the Midwest in 1942 and since that time has grown to such an extent that 15,000,000 chicks were sold last year...”
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