Bucks' Valley Stream Inn to be demolished, its land preserved

A small piece of Lower Bucks County's popular culture was formally lost to nature Wednesday.

The Valley Stream Inn, a popular restaurant known for its crab cakes, Sunday brunch, and scenic views of the Neshaminy Creek, now is set for demolition.

The county commissioners approved the $230,000 purchase with federal funds to preserve the 3.5-acre low-lying tract as open space.

The landmark, built in 1956, got flooded several times over the years but always reopened. It closed for good in September, after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee flushed the creek over its banks twice in two weeks, said Bill Mitchell, executive director of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

From the outside, the inn off Bridgetown Pike looked more like a house, with its brick and cedar-shake facade. Inside were a pair of dining rooms and a rectangular wood bar.

"Back into the 1970s to the 1990s, it was really one of the leading restaurants in the county," Commissioner Charles Martin recalled. "Some weekends, it would be packed, with people lined up to get in. They'd have entertainment, sometimes Irish music."

The county owns less than an acre next to the tract, Mitchell said. The long-range goal is to protect the creek from New Britain Township in central Bucks to where it flows into the Delaware River.

The same federal program that is funding the Valley Stream Inn purchase is providing nearly $1 million for work on seven houses along the creek in Bristol Township and Hulmeville Borough. The contracts approved Wednesday are for the houses to be elevated above the 100-year floodplain or for utility rooms to be added above that level.

As for the inn, it "had the best crab cakes this side of Maryland," said Brian Hessenthaler, the county's chief operating officer. "It was just a comfortable place to sit and have a meal."

Contact staff writer Bill Reed at 215-801-2964, wreed@philly.com, and @breedbucks on Twitter. Read his blog, "BucksInq," at www.philly.com/bucksinq.