Boileau Festival Returns May 4

The Friends of the Boileau Farmstead will be hosting its seventh-annual Boileau Festival, May 4, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The event, which will take place at Boileau Park, located at 2668 Byberry Road in Hatboro, celebrates the history and ongoing restoration of one of Upper Moreland’s historical gems.

“It’s the last intact farmstead, all the original buildings,” Nick Scull, president of the Friends of the Boileau Farmstead, said. “It belongs to the people of the township, and they should see it.”

According to Scull, the Boileau Farmstead property can trace its roots back to 1740. The park area contains multi-use athletic fields toward Byberry Road, and in the back are the farmstead’s historic barn and farmhouse.

The entire Boileau Park area will be busy with family-friendly activities during the festival.

Some of which include:

• Sheep Herding Demonstrations

• Farm Animals/Petting Zoo

• “Early American Pastimes for Children” by Pat Masters of Colonial Domestic Arts

• Penn’s Woods Puppet Theater’s performances of “The Walls Have Ears”

• Revolutionary War reenactors from Crossing Community Church.

According to Scull, the Crossing Community Church Revolutionary War reenactors’ will present Colonial life demonstrations and the life of Revolutionary soldiers, which coincide with the May 1, 1775 anniversary of the Battle of Crooked Billet.

While the event is free to the public, donations will be accepted, and appreciated, as Scull points out that continuing restoration efforts of the historical properties on site are the Friends of Boileau’s primary mission.

He said that the door to the farm house will be newly installed and that the new and damaged portions of the Barn roof, which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and helped restored by the state department of Community and Economic Development and Tom Murt’s office, will also be ready to be seen by the public.

To help provide the public with the importance of the Friends’ mission, there will be guides at both the historic properties to explain about Colonial carpentry and the restoration process.

According to www.friendsofboileau.org, the May 4 Boileau festival will also feature a dedication ceremony of a new trail constructed through Boileau park. The dedication will be in memory of the late Edward Momorella, who served as Abington Township’s Emergency Management administrator and a key person of the Upper Moreland Historical Association.

The website states that Momorella provided research on the Boileau and Molloy Families, the previous owners of the Boileau Property.

For more information, visit the Friends of Boileau website.

To see a photo gallery of the 2012 Boileau Festival, click here.