Doylestown Featured In New HBO Drama 'The Gilded Age,' Made By Downton Abbey Creator

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The new drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has premiered, and several of the main characters have connections to Doylestown.

The first episode of "The Gilded Age" dropped on Monday, introducing viewers to its imagination of 1880s New York.

But while the show is set in New York, we meet Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), in Doylestown, where she has just learned that her late father has left behind no house or assets, and just $30 to her name.

She seeks refuge with her father's sisters in New York City, leaving Doylestown by train for a trip that would have taken quite a bit longer back then.

"At least there's a railway station in Doylestown now, unlike in our day," Marian's aunt, Agnes Brook (Cynthia Nixon), details upon hearing she is on the way. "But she'll need to get up early to catch the first train to Lansdale, and then she'll have to change at Bethlehem and take the Lehigh Valley railroad to Exchange Place in Jersey City, and then catch the ferry across the Hudson to Desbrosses Street."

After another character, aunt Agnes van Rhijn played by Christine Baranski, interrupts her to ask for a bit less detail, she exclaims that the journey will be "12 hours or more." Today, driving into New York takes a little under two hours, and taking a bus or train would mean a trip of between three and four.

On the train platform, Marian meets Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) when a fight breaks out and the two women are knocked together. Marian inadvertently tears Peggy's dress; then, when she realizes her bag and ticket have been taken in the commotion, Peggy pays for her ride on the train.

Peggy's business in Doylestown "is left an undiscussed mystery" for the show's first half, according to a review in the Los Angeles Times. Her family lives in Brooklyn, and she is a writer and aspiring novelist.

When Peggy is unable to get to Brooklyn, Marian offers her a ride to come stay at her aunts' house in Manhattan.

Though Peggy, a Black woman, is relegated to the servant's quarters, she and aunt Agnes bond over a connection to the historic Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, where Peggy was a student and Agnes' family donated funds.

Robert Lloyd, who reviewed the show for the Los Angeles Times, says historical research "tends to lay on top of the story, like chocolate sprinkles, rather than being baked into the cake itself," meaning that in its "mannerly expressions and dialogue that avoids contractions, The Gilded Age feels remarkably inert, even dreary, for a story set in America’s most exciting city in a period of turmoil."

In Glamour Magazine, a reviewer thought the show provided a more nuanced and better representational look at history than Fellowes' previous work.

"Across the street from old money is desperate-to-fit-in new money and across the water — in Brooklyn — is an enclave of well-to-do Black Americans who own their own homes, have established businesses, and have no desire to live a second-class existence over in Manhattan," Tanya Christian wrote in her review.

Other reviewers also enjoyed their first look at the drama.

"The Gilded Age is a perfect period drama for 2022," Meghan O'Keefe wrote in a review for Decider. "It’s a soapy, sexy look at a time when the gulf between the rich and the poor was a chasm, cultural mores were changing, and New York City was on the cusp of reinvention."

While set in New York and referencing several Pennsylvania easter eggs, the show was actually filmed in several iconic mansions in Newport, Patch writer Rachel Nunes detailed in a story last week.

Bucks County residents might enjoy one line reading in particular from the first episode of "The Gilded Age": when Peggy and Marian arrive in New York, Marian says, “Funny, I never imagined I’d be wistful for Pennsylvania."

Be the first to know the news in Doylestown when you subscribe to Patch.