Furlong lies around the intersection of Edison-Furlong Rd, Swamp Rd, and York Rd (Route 263), straddling the border that separates Doylestown from Buckingham Township.
The area was noted as Barville ('Bear'-ville) on some maps published as late as 1852. At some point, the Beartown Inn was sold to Colonel Elisha Wilkinson of Buckingham, who renamed it the "Green Tree Inn." An inept sign-painter, commissioned to paint the sign for the newly named inn, gave the townspeople something to gossip about and of which to poke fun ... the trees in the sign were not recognizable as such.
By 1832 the name of the place was commonly referred to as Green Tree; that year a post office was established and the town was renamed Bushington with Henry Carver as the postmaster. When he was succeeded two years later by William D. Ruckman Esq. Around that time the postmaster general, John Foster, visited Doylestown to discuss the name of the postmaster with his friend, county-seat postmaster John Randall. It seems the name was similar to another post office elsewhere in Pennsylvania and the task was to agree on a new one. According to George MacReynolds in Place Names in Bucks County, "... during the course of conversation Foster happened to use the word 'furlong.' Furlong! There's your name, exclaimed Randall. And so it was." [1]
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Edison Furlong Road • Forest Grove Road • Route 263 • York Road