Words and photos by Streets Dept Lead Contributor Eric Dale.
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Hello and welcome to another installment of Local Tourist, your monthly guide to seasonally appropriate outings around Philadelphia.

Since it’s June now, I’m returning to climate-controlled destinations for a while. Today, let’s take a look at the Mercer Museum, in Doylestown!

The iconic Mercer Museum is one of three poured-in-place reinforced concrete buildings constructed by Henry Mercer, an archaeologist and tile-maker who devoted much of the second half of his life to collecting all sorts of things from America and around the world.

I’ve told you about Mercer previously in my column on Fonthill Castle, his home five minutes north of the museum, so I won’t spend time here repeating his biography. The one thing I’ll remind you of is his quite indiscriminate collecting of all sorts of objects. Protecting his massive collections from fire were his sole reason for making his buildings out of concrete—and in the case of the museum, he used 6,000 tons of it.

Just like Fonthill, this six-story monstrosity was personally designed by Mercer, and his express purpose for building it was to store his collections. Mercer’s eight-person team finished the building in 1916, after three years of construction under the guidance of nothing but sketches and the man who drew them. A huge new visitors center was built in front of the entrance in 2011.

In his museum, Mercer “sought to preserve, as broadly as possible, the everyday life of the average American in the 18th and 19th centuries,” according to the website. He seems to have been preoccupied with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the reverberating effects it was having across the country. Namely, that traditional tools and methods were being rapidly abandoned in favor of industrial processes.

Mercer thought that all of this was foundational to the creation and success of the United States, and should be preserved for posterity. Thus, his original name for his museum was “The Tools of the Nation-maker.”

And tools you will find aplenty inside—along with boats, carriages, Mercer’s signature tiles, and various other objects and implements. There are somewhere around 40,000 objects preserved here, and it’s precisely as overwhelming as that sounds.

The museum has a unique construction, with dozens of little rooms around the edges of the building that are sealed behind glass. There are also little alcoves where it’s almost like you’re walking into a glass bubble inside of a larger room full of artifacts. Each one is generally dedicated to a particular discipline, like glass blowing, butter and cheese making, hat making, tinsmithing, leather working, engraving, mining, woodworking, baking. shoe making, needlework, execution… I could go on. And on. And on.

It’s honestly too much to take in. You won’t be able to see or absorb everything, and that’s ok. Just follow your nose and you’ll find something interesting. Here are some highlights that I personally enjoyed:

Rollo’s Stairs—Mercer’s Chesapeake Bay retriever Rollo ran up these stairs before the concrete set, and he decided to leave the paw prints there. Cute!

The stoveplate room—these cast iron stoveplates would have been arranged near a fire by the Pennsylvania Dutch to create a surface for cooking. Their designs inspired a number of Mercer’s tiles.

The roof!—there is public roof access at the Mercer, which really allows you to see that every single part of this building is made of concrete. It also gives you a view of Doylestown and the green roof on top of the new visitors center.

If you’re visiting with kids, there’s a kids room on the 5th floor, as well as a bunch of different kid-friendly activities available at the front desk: crossword puzzles, word searches, age-appropriate scavenger hunts… it’s actually a lot!

There’s also an audio tour available from the front desk.

Either before or after you check out the historic building and its artifacts, definitely stop at the modern museum section in the visitors center. When I visited, there was a musical instrument exhibit on display, with unbelievable pieces and some great audio clips to listen to.

And if you’re a Bucks County native or just super interested in local history, the Mercer Museum Research Library has a collection of books and documents that rivals the Museum’s in size! Apparently it’s a great resource for local and family history in the region.

The Mercer Museum is $15 for adults. Worth a visit!