Former Doylestown Borough Hall Crumbles Into History

DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The former Doylestown Borough Hall is just days away from fading into the history books.

Demolition is well underway at 57 West Court Street where the only recognizable part of the building that’s still standing is its front facade.

The site originally housed the Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1838. In the early 1900s, the building was converted into an armory, then a sports venue, and eventually the Doylestown Garage. In 1915, a fire destroyed much of the original structure except for the building's exterior walls. The exterior walls were subsequently taken down and the current structure was built to house the new garage.

Sometime between 1959 and 1979, the front of the building was renovated to reflect a new use. The front facade was replaced with a hall-like pedestrian entrance. A second story was also removed.

In 1979, the building was sold to Doylestown Borough. It served as the Doylestown Borough Hall from 1979 to 2022, when the borough relocated its offices to its current site on Doyle Street.

Story Continues Below The Photos

The only thing remaining of the former borough hall is the West Court Street facade. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

Blue sky and a pile of debris can be seen through the front window. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

(Jeff Werner/Patch)

(Jeff Werner/Patch)

Just beyond its familiar front door and windows is a growing pile of debris, including large chunks of
concrete and twisted metal, the only remnants of the former borough hall, where major decisions over the years shaped what Doylestown Borough is today.

Among the key decisions made inside those walls was the planning and development of the new Bucks County Justice Center, the planned redevelopment of the former Intelligencer property with the borough’s single largest residential development, and the redevelopment of the unsightly PennDOT yard and PennDOT building into a new municipal complex and police headquarters.

The borough sold the building in 2021 for $2.3 million to Larry Thompson, who owns several key Doylestown properties, including the Lenape Building at the intersection of Main and State streets and McCaffrey’s Simply Fresh market on West State Street.

During a series of contentious hearings in 2024, Thompson secured approvals from the zoning hearing board to redevelop the property with a four-story boutique hotel that will include 32 rooms, an event space, and a full-service restaurant.

But he did not receive the parking relief that he had sought. Nor did the zoning board allow any plans for a rooftop bar, which had originally been proposed.

Thompson has since settled appeals by neighboring residents over the size and scope of the project, agreeing to limit the event space to 100 guests to cut down on traffic impacts on the neighborhood.

During the hearings, Thompson testified that when he purchased the property, his intent was to rent the existing building.

"We had a bank look at it, a daycare operation, and a veterinary hospital. It just kept coming back to the same thing. The first level (of the building) is pretty much useless," he said. "The ceiling height is about seven feet. There are no sprinklers or HVAC. You would struggle to get it habitable."

Thompson said his focus quickly turned to the demolition of the building and the redevelopment of the site.

"Initially, I wanted to do apartments, but that was not a permitted use (in the zoning district)," he said. "The hotel idea came about after speaking to a lot of business owners in town and knowing people in the hospitality business ... We have everything else - the walkability, the shops, the restaurants, the train. But we don't have the hotel rooms," he said.