Towamencin History: The Boorse House and John Cassel Boorse, Esq.

A Kulpsville resident worthy of special note is John Cassel Boorse, Esq.

His Mennonite ancestors emigrated from Holland to Germantown in 1731, later to Worcester, and finally settled in Towamencin by 1766. John was born in Towamencin in 1831. He lived in Kulpsville for most of his life. For a time, he attended the Towamencin Mennonite Church, as did his ancestors. 

He was a farmer and a schoolmaster at Airy Hall School on Troxel Road for a couple of years. As a surveyor, he helped survey the boroughs of Hatfield and Lansdale. He was a Justice of the Peace, a historian, and an active man about town in local Republican political circles. 

    Boorse Octagon house was along the Sumneytown Pike in Kulpsville at Green Lane Road. Credit: North Penn Reporter, ca. 1998.
  

He published a newspaper called the "Towamencin Item" from 1890 to 1894. For a short time, he operated a photography studio out of his house on weekends. He was the first director of the Lansdale Water-Works Company. J. Henry Specht called him the Ben Franklin of Kulpsville. 

John C. Boorse penned a historical article of some unwritten stories of Kulpsville and Towamencin Township in 1905 for the Montgomery County Historical Society. He was instrumental in bringing telephone service to Kulpsville, and the switching station for phone service was in his uniquely constructed house.

His hexagonal frame house, built in 1858, was a revolutionary mid-nineteenth century American design popular for a few decades, due to architect Orson S. Fowler who believed the circle offered the most efficient living space. 

    Boorse home image from the 1877 Scott's Map of Montgomery County, Pa. Credit: Towamencin History.
  

In the final years of the 20th Century, there was a plan under way, developed by historian and Towamencin Township Supervisor, the late Dr. Thomas Hollenbeck, to have the unique six-cornered Boorse house reconstructed as a museum for Towamencin Township and a tribute to the Boorse family. 

However, with funds lacking for the extensive reconstruction, the house was dismantled in 1999.

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