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The Godwin Building is located at 110 S. State Street, Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
History
The building was built in 1868 by Barclay Smith to house a new financial venture, The Newtown Banking Company. Smith was a member of Wrightstown Friends Meeting and an organizer of the First National Bank of Newtown in 1864. The Newtown Banking Company financed The Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad, a Newtown based railroad company who built rails from Philadelphia to Newtown.
Opening the Newtown station to the public in 1878, they had a goal of extending rail lines to New York, but lost to a competing company based in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. The competitor extended a rail line from Langhorne that made the connection to New York by joining the Jersey Central at Bound Brook. This event ended Newtown’s railroad boom period and by the end of that year the bank was forced to close its doors.
At one time it housed a general store such as in the 1905 photo when it was owned by Mark Granite. In 1941 it was named the Keller Memorial Building after Clayton Keller who had owned it and worked as a barber there for over 30 years. In 1983 the name was changed to The Godwin Building when it was purchased by Robert A. Godwin, an attorney who renovated it and uses it for his law practice. It is also home to a number of local businesses such a psychotherapy practice, accounting firm, nail and hair salons, and a gift shop.