A Brief History Of Tullytown

Tullytown Borough is celebrating its 125^th anniversary in style with a ramped up Memorial Day parade this year. The town, though smaller than most in area and population, has had a storied history with a number of important individuals coming through the town.

The furthest back that we can go to look into the technical history of Tullytown is at John Tully. According to volume 30 of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, John Tully was a landowner in the area now identified as Tullytown. Other sources also identify him as a local tavern owner. There is no date for John Tully’s life that I could find, but according to the same magazine, the town wasn’t organized as it would be recognized today until about 1800, by Thomas Riche. For a while, the town was known as Riche-town, according to the history publication.

The official starting year for the incarnation of the town that we all know, however, is 1891, when Tullytown officially incorporated into a borough.

Tullytown Celebrates 125th Anniversary & Memorial Day With Large Parade

In those 125 years, a lot of growth has come to the town in the form of different people of high influence coming through, to the establishment of police and fire forces, and to the site of a controversial landfill in recent years.

One thing that is apparent when walking into Tullytown’s Borough Hall is the emphasis on history that the town holds. A posterboard with a collage of historical photos to celebrate the town’s 125^th anniversary is on display in the council chambers. Looking at the board is like taking a trip through history: Photos of every police chief, big town gatherings, and important events from the history of the town are celebrated for anyone to see. Above the council’s seating are photos from the iconic John F. Kennedy campaign visit to the Levittown Shopping Center in the 1960s.

“We try to remember our history,” David Cutchineal, the mayor of the borough said. “We’re like little brothers with Bristol and Morrisville,” he said.

Cutchineal’s family has been in Tullytown for more than 100 years. According to Cutchineal, his family has been in Tullytown since 1903, and he considers his family, among others, to be one of the “old families” of Tullytown.

In our meeting, Cutchineal was joined by sisters Annette Tyrrell and Stephanie Parto. Another “old family” of the town, Partos’ family is deeply entrenched in Tullytown’s history through the aid in the founding of the police department by their father, Stephen Parto.  Other members of the Parto clan were justice of the peace and a tavern owner.

“It was a great place to grow up. Everyone had their own groups of friends, but everyone was a Tullytowner,” Cutchineal said.

The Parto sisters now live in Levittown. Stephanie in the Lakewood section of Tullytown , and Annette in the Magnolia Hill section of Bristol Township.

Lots of things have changed since Annette, Stephanie, and David were kids. They remember needing to be home when the street lights came on, going asparagus picking by the old steel mill, going to Tullytown Beach, and even hearing stories about “Midnight Mary,” the town’s paranormal claim to fame.

One of the fondest memories that Stephanie and Annette have from their childhoods, they said was going up on their roof to see the fireworks from the St. Mike’s Fair every year.

“The only time our father would let us on the roof was watching fireworks at St. Mike’s Fair,” Stephanie said.

Although the past is filled with fond memories of the way things were, a number of events put Tullytown on the map for reasons well beyond rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.

Things such as the Abraham Lincoln Funeral Train made its way through Tullytown after he was assassinated in 1865. Robert Kennedy’s funeral train would come through Tullytown in 1968 after his assassination as well. Pictures of the congregation for Kennedy’s train can be seen on the aforementioned collage.

John F. Kennedy campaigned at the Levittown Shopping Center in 1959. Four years earlier, Walt Disney stopped in for the dedication ceremony at the first Walt Disney named elementary school in the nation.

Through the entire history, though, the standing of the borough by its long standing residents is strong and resilient.

With the landfill scheduled to close in 2017, it isn’t clear what the future holds for Tullytown, but, assuming that the same caring and dedicated residents will continue to endure, the mayor says the town is in good hands for the next 125 years.