By Miachi Williams, Full360 reporter

Video By Gillian Baker

For some of us on campus a class field trip hasn’t been mentioned to us since high school, but we got a chance to get off campus and into the community during our Digital Video Production I class.

On a chilly fall afternoon, Media Professor Marion Callahan took her students to tour one of Doylestown’s most decorated historical establishments, the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works museum.

The class was guided through the establishment by Director of Education and Events Julianna Lange, who had a ton of history to drop onto her tourists. “The building is a place that preserves the process of historical tile making so people don’t forget how it was created in the past,” she said.

As for the founder, Henry Chapman Mercer, Lange said, he “was an archeologist who traveled the globe and was always finding artifacts to understand how civilizations lived during the industrial revolution, he began collecting tools and history that was beginning to disappear to keep them relevant and in store for the future.”

Places throughout Doylestown and Bucks County are covered in Mercer’s tiles. All of the tiles made and sold at the TileWorks come from his traditional instructions and molds, she said.

One student from the video class shared his thoughts of the tour of the building.

“Truly, we were all amazed by the history and how treasured this establishment is in Doylestown, and we simply learned how Henry Mercer played a key role in the building of the entire town,” said Jeremiah Clark.

The feedback from Professor Callahan’s class was all good, so don’t be afraid to go out and try something new over winter break. Not only does Tileworks offer tours but also classes on how to create your own tiles from home. They hold special events for all ages.