Air Quality Testing in Warminster Heights, PA

This neighborhood, built in 1943, formerly served as the civilian housing area for the long-defunct Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, established in 1941, while the area was still referred to as Johnsville. It later became the and was finally known as the prior to its being decommissioned and closed by the US federal government in the mid-1990s. The community was previously named Lacey Park, for Pennsylvania Militia General John Lacey, who fought during the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of Crooked Billet, which took place near the neighborhood. It is still referred to colloquially as Lacey Park by local residents.

In the 1960s, Lacey Park was renamed Warminster Heights, although to this day many older area residents prefer the former name when referring to the neighborhood. Deserved or not, it had a somewhat odious reputation among the local population as it was a lower class, blue collar, low-rent public housing district during the 1960s and ’70s up to the mid-1980s. The housing project had over 10,000 health and safety violations and was known as the “worst suburban slum in Pennsylvania.” It suffered from a high crime rate and a high rate of house fires. Built in the 1940s by the US federal government, most of the housing units consisted of cinder block on slab construction, in units of four dwellings per structure (similar to Philadelphia row homes), in either one or two stories, generally with central heating via coal or heating oil furnaces with mostly electric appliances. Between 1957 and 1975 the housing units were under private ownership; in 1975 the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County took over and managed the properties, and in 1986 ownership was turned over to a housing cooperative called the Warminster Heights Home Owners’ Association. The housing cooperative began renovating the units following the assumption of ownership.The neighborhood has worked hard to repair its image. It has been known over the years for instances of murder and other violent crimes. The Park, as it is often referred to, has a history and longstanding association with poverty, alcohol abuse, and constant drug activity. (See references)