This old barn, outside of Newtown in Lower Bucks County, soon will be harvested. The core of a large farm, it belongs to a developer. Fields all around it are quickly sprouting mini-mansions; that will be the way of this homestead too. Will it fall first to a bulldozer’s blade, or succumb to nature’s forces?

Black and white was chosen to emphasize the buildings’ bleak future. In color, there is a cheery blue sky, a wisp of clouds and a thin veneer of snow peeking through the field’s stubble. It conveys an entirely different feeling, blinding you to the disappearance of the rich fields that once dominated that part of the county, now a land of malls, highways, houses and smog.

© 2007 George J. Bancroft Sr.