ATTENTION NEW HOPE BOROUGH RESIDENTS AND PROPERTY OWNERS...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A FLOOD WATCH FOR FRIDAY EVENING INTO MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 12 THROUGH MARCH 14

A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING BASED ON CURRENT FORECASTS. YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE ALERT FOR POSSIBLE FLOOD WARNINGS. THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOUNT HOLLY HAS ISSUED A * FLOOD WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF DELAWARE...NORTHEAST MARYLAND... NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA...INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS... IN DELAWARE...DELAWARE BEACHES...INLAND SUSSEX...KENT AND NEW CASTLE. IN NORTHEAST MARYLAND...CAROLINE...CECIL...KENT MD... QUEEN ANNES AND TALBOT. IN NEW JERSEY...ATLANTIC...ATLANTIC COASTAL CAPE MAY...CAMDEN...CAPE MAY...COASTAL ATLANTIC... COASTAL OCEAN...CUMBERLAND...EASTERN MONMOUTH...GLOUCESTER... HUNTERDON...MERCER...MIDDLESEX...MORRIS...NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON...OCEAN...SALEM...SOMERSET...SOUTHEASTERN BURLINGTON...SUSSEX...WARREN AND WESTERN MONMOUTH. IN PENNSYLVANIA...BERKS...BUCKS...CARBON...CHESTER...DELAWARE... LEHIGH...MONROE...MONTGOMERY...NORTHAMPTON AND PHILADELPHIA. * FROM FRIDAY EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING A COMPLEX STORM SYSTEM WILL BE AFFECTING THE REGION THROUGH SUNDAY. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE OVER THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE NATION WILL MOVE EASTWARD THROUGH SATURDAY. A SECOND LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS THEN EXPECTED TO FORM NEAR THE NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER AND MOVE GENERALLY NORTHWARD SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY. THE COMBINATION OF ALL OF THESE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS WILL BRING RAIN TO THE AREA BEGINNING ON FRIDAY. THE RAIN WILL BECOME STEADIER AND HEAVIER FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY AS THE SECOND LOW APPROACHED THE REGION. WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE ANTICIPATED WITH THIS STORM. LOCAL AMOUNTS UP TO 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY IN THOSE LOCATIONS THAT RECEIVE THE HEAVIEST RAIN. GIVEN THIS AMOUNT OF RAIN, SMALL STREAMS AND POSSIBLY MAINSTEM RIVERS WILL REACH FLOOD STAGE. SMALLER STREAMS WILL RESPOND FIRST TO THE RAINFALL FOLLOWED BY THE LARGER RIVERS. FLOODING COULD BEGIN AS SOON AS LATE FRIDAY NIGHT ALONG FAST RESPONDING CREEKS, WHILE THE LARGER, SLOWER RESPONDING RIVERS, COULD SEE FLOODING PERSIST INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK. THESE RAINFALL AMOUNTS ALSO HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE FLOODING OF ROADWAYS AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. IF YOU ARE TRAVELING, PLEASE ALLOW EXTRA TIME TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION. IN ADDITION TO ANY FLOODING, HEAVY RAIN CAN CAUSE REDUCED VISIBILITIES. PLEASE STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET FOR FURTHER UPDATES AND ANY POSSIBLE WARNINGS. PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR RIVERS OR STREAMS THAT ARE PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE ON HEIGHTENED ALERT AND SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION IF FLOODING DEVELOPS.

The governmental events and public meeting agendas are updated monthly, so please visit this site often for the latest New Hope Borough news. If there is something you would like to see on this site that is currently unavailable, please contact us.

New Hope Borough is a member of the Landmark Towns of Bucks County Initiative, in association with the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, Inc. Landmark Towns is a regional economic development initiative of four boroughs located along the Delaware Canal and River - Bristol, Morrisville, New Hope and Yardley. Landmark Towns is designed to improve the traditional historic downtown business districts in the four river towns by enhancing the quality of life, preserving historic resources, and promoting economic development.

New Hope Borough is also member of the Greater New Hope Chamber of Commerce. Please visit the Chamber's web site for additional information about New Hope, to find out about local events & entertainment, and to join the Chamber's e-newsletter mailing list.

Borough Council asks all residents to support the New Hope business community by Shopping Locally. Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, invest in neighborhood improvement, and promote community development.

Borough Council is pleased to announce that the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) recently selected New Hope as a Classic Town. The Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia initiative is committed to the growth, revitalization, support and promotion of the region’s many unique communities as great places to live, work and play.

A Brief History of New Hope, Pennsylvania

Nearly ten thousand years ago the Lenni-Lenape Native Americans carved their way from the Delaware River in what is now Philadelphia through richly wooded forests seeking land for planting, forests for hunting and water for fishing. Many of them settled on about 1,000 acres in what is now New Hope, Pennsylvania.

In the early part of the eighteenth century William Penn authorized a sale of land to Robert Heath for the purpose of building a mill and establishing a community.  Hence, New Hope was born.

During the American Revolutionary War General George Washington marched through New Hope on four documented occasions and the town played a vital role in the preparations for the Battles of Trenton and Monmouth.

New Hope’s strategic location on the Delaware River has made it an important transportation hub over the past three centuries.  Stage coaches, canal boats, trains, trolleys and automobiles all made their way to New Hope--the half-way point from Philadelphia to New York City and the midpoint of the Delaware Canal between Easton and Bristol.

The sheer natural beauty of the area that was first seen and appreciated by the Lenni-Lenape people so many thousands of years ago attracted the great Pennsylvania Impressionist school of artists like Daniel Garber and Edwin Redfield in the early part of the twentieth century.  Broadway summer stock theater followed shortly after them featuring such great actors as Helen Hayes, George C. Scott and Robert Redfield at the Bucks County Playhouse which still thrills audiences seven decades later.

The drive for liberty and independence that brought George Washington’s army in the eighteenth century and the Underground Railroad in the nineteenth century continued in 2002 when New Hope became the first borough in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to pass a comprehensive ordinance banning discrimination in employment, public housing and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Today, many thousands of visitors each week make New Hope the number one tourist attraction in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  New Hope is home to dozens of art galleries, fine antique shops, two museums, more than one hundred historic buildings, and nationally acclaimed craft shops and restaurants.  The Delaware Canal runs through the center of town, criss-crossed by a half dozen streams and creeks that flow into the historic Delaware River providing the natural beauty that continues to thrill all who come to New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Information on guided walking tours of downtown New Hope and tours of the historic Parry Mansion is available at the web site of the New Hope Historical Society.