Historic University of Penn research lab is demolished on Red Cedar Hill in Levittown

Twelve school districts in Bucks County recently split the cost of $272,630 to tear down a vacant, century-old research lab where biologists created the world-famous Wistar Rat for the University of Pennsylvania.

The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology at Penn built the complex in the 1920s on Red Cedar Hill in Bristol Township. Ten years later during the Great Depression when the future Levittown was farmland, university biologists at the center bred and patented “Wistar Rats” to achieve incredible advances in treating human disease. In 1936, 50 of the nation’s top zoologists flocked to Cedar Hill to view “the most pampered and aristocratic rats in the world,” according to the New York Herald Tribune. A reporter for United Press noted, “In these historic surroundings, the rats have become the standard rats of the world for scientific purposes.”

As William Levitt was building Levittown to include the hill in the 1950s, he deeded the vacated labs across Red Cedar Drive from his mansion to joint ownership by every school district in Bucks County except Centennial. For years the county Intermediate Unit managed the site for specialized classes with the districts sharing the cost. Left vacant in recent years, the districts agreed to sell the property to a buyer contingent on the deed restriction being lifted. The districts tried to get the Levitt family or a representative to agree but “we never heard back,” according to Chris Polzer, assistant superintendent of the Bristol Township School District. The districts subsequently demolished the buildings that posed a safety hazard.

Today, the only public reminder of the Penn legacy is nearby Wistar Road serving Conwell-Egan Catholic High School and Bucks County Technical School. Levitt’s mansion was demolished a few years ago and replaced by single family homes. Now the Wistar labs are gone. What remains is a nearby farmhouse plus a gated private mansion that once served as headquarters of Penn’s research effort. My suggestion is the township or county acquire the open space where the labs and a Levitt-built home once stood. The acreage could be a picturesque pocket park with a historical marker to note the Levitt/Penn connection now lost in time.

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'Puke Hollow' and breaking Mom's rules

I recently heard from readers about my write-up on the Langhorne Speedway. Wally Stronski, member of the Rod Rammers of Philadelphia, remembers racing at the track -- but not on the Big Oval. Rather it was on an 1/8-mile drag strip in the center of the racing oval. Races occurred every Sunday from spring to Labor Day. “I raced there many Sundays. At the end of each season a champion car club was crowned based on a season-long point system. An awards banquet was held at a Trenton hotel in February.”

Tom Barnett of Pine Run Village in Doylestown chimed in with breaking his mom’s dress code: “It was a hot summer day back in the 1940s. Probably a Sunday after church because I can't think why else I would have on a clean white shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows. That afternoon a small group of us NE Philly teenagers ventured up to see the races in Langhorne. The races were exciting and every time around the cars sprayed a cloud of oily dust onto the crowd. When I got home after our afternoon of fun, my mother looked at my dust covered shirt and in no uncertain terms told me to throw it in the basement wash pile.

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“Monday afternoon when I arrived home from school, I was greeted by an angry mother holding a white shirt with both sleeves that had several black rings just above the cuffs marking where the dust had settled. Lesson learned. Langhorne and white shirts don't mix!”

Bill Giebe of Wrightstown moved to Levittown just before the track closed in 1972.  He knows track history and adds this: “The track was originally a perfect circle but not level.  Where Steve's Prince of Steaks is located now, past the water tower, was (and still is) downhill.  That drop in elevation plus the g-forces from the turn at high speeds are what gave that section of track the nickname ‘Puke Hollow’.”

Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Historic Penn research lab razed in Red Cedar Hill in Bristol Township