W3B — Bolton Mansion Special Event Station
One Sunday, one callsign, three centuries of Bucks County history. Penn Wireless puts the Phineas Pemberton House on the air — from the mansion's lawn and from members' home stations.
When
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Callsign
W3B
Where
Bolton Mansion, 85 Holly Dr, Levittown — and from home
Honoring
The Phineas Pemberton House, c. 1687
What W3B commemorates
Bolton Mansion is one of the oldest surviving houses in Pennsylvania and one of the most unusual: a 1687 Quaker homestead, the seat of an official at the heart of William Penn's colonial government, a Revolutionary encampment, and — improbably — the office from which Levittown was designed and sold. Penn Wireless is activating W3B to put that story into a few thousand logbooks, and to support the Friends of Bolton Mansion who keep the house alive. Every voice contact from the site comes with a little Bolton trivia at no extra charge.
Three centuries in one house
- 1687
The first house goes up — local green mica schist, four decades before Ben Franklin arrived in Philadelphia.
- 1699
Phineas Pemberton — Quaker, close associate of William Penn, and Bucks County's Register of Wills, Recorder, and Clerk of the Court — purchases and begins enlarging the farm he named Bolton, after his hometown in England.
- 1777
The Continental Army surrounds the farm during the Revolution…
- 1778
…and the British Army pillages it the following year. Bolton saw both sides of the war up close.
- 1828–1834
Home to the Bolton School of Advanced Agriculture, Arts and Letters.
- 1927
A portion of the farm is spun off to become the Wistar Institute's research farm, while later generations keep improving the estate into the 1930s.
- 1938–1952
The University of Pennsylvania runs its first Field School of Veterinary Medicine and Science here.
- 1952–1955
The mansion serves as the operations center for William Levitt & Sons during the construction of Levittown — a 1687 farmhouse directing the invention of the modern suburb.
- 1955–1965
Bristol Township runs its offices from the house.
- 1971
Added to the National Register of Historic Places (September 28, 1971).
- 1976
The Friends of Bolton Mansion form to preserve the house — and still operate it today at 85 Holly Drive as a museum with tours and seasonal events. On September 27, it adds “radio station” to the résumé.
How to take part
Operate on site at the mansion
A single club-provided station on the mansion grounds runs 9 AM to 3 PM in one-hour slots — one operator per hour. The club supplies the radio and antenna; no other radios or antennas are allowed on site. The station is run as an SSB voice station: the whole point is telling the world Bolton Mansion exists, one QSO and one piece of trivia at a time. If you've never worked a pileup from the DX side, this is your chance — with a script and friendly company.
4 of 6 one-hour slots open
Operate W3B from home
No travel required: members can run the W3B callsign from their own stations, 9 AM to 9 PM in two-hour slots, staffed independently per mode — SSB, CW, and Digital — with one operator per slot per mode so the callsign stays clear on the air. Take one slot or several; work whatever bands are open.
11 of 18 two-hour slots open
Members: claim your slots on the sign-up page (log in first). Not a member yet? This is exactly the kind of thing we do.
Chasing W3B?
Listen for W3B on the HF bands all day September 27 — SSB, CW, and digital from home stations, with the on-site voice station active 9 AM–3 PM Eastern. Work us on as many bands and modes as you like, and you'll take a piece of 1687 home in your log.
Visit the mansion
The house itself is the star. The Friends of Bolton Mansion run tours and seasonal events at 85 Holly Drive, Levittown — come for the radios, stay for three centuries of history.
boltonmansion.org