ALLENTOWN, Pa. – As Revolutionary War reenactors march up Hamilton, it’s a walk-through time signaling an enduring American idea.<\/p>\n
A more than 6 foot high, 1500-pound bronze semi quincentennial bell unveiled as part the America 250 celebration. The corner of Allentown’s South Church and Hamilton Street is fitting ground.<\/p>\n
Just feet away in 1777, after Philadelphia fell to the British. The then State House Bell, known to all as the Liberty Bell, was hidden under the floorboards of Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n
A journey made to protect the symbol of American freedom, for fears of being melted down and used as British ammunition.<\/p>\n
“Liberty Bell is hidden here only 15 years after the town is officially founded,” said Lehigh Valley Heritage Executive Director James Higgens.<\/p>\n
Adding that it’s the origin story of Allentown.<\/p>\n
“And the reality is, this was a crossroads village. And when you think of the early history of Allentown, I don’t know how you think of it without thinking of the Liberty Bell and Zion’s Reformed Church,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
While a replica remains inside the church, the commemorative bell is one of six placed in key Pennsylvania spots. State Senator Nick Miller was the hero of this story. Helping to secure its spot and the $250,000, mostly donated, to pay for the bell.<\/p>\n
Executive Director of America 250 PA Cassandra Coleman say the locations tell the undersold stories of Pennsylvania Revolutionary War role.<\/p>\n
“Our goal here for the last eight years. It’s really taking these community stories and uplifting them. Making sure that they are part of the overall anniversary in this historic here,” she said.<\/p>\n
A bell hidden to not save metal but preserve an idea. One that Advisor of Lehigh County Semi quincentennial Fadia Halma says, despite its challenges, remains alive today.<\/p>\n
“I really want people to remember that this country was born on the idea of democracy and liberty, and to remember that, to cherish that, to go out and vote to actually be part of community, do some public service and get that community feeling back again,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – As Revolutionary War reenactors march up Hamilton, it’s a walk-through time signaling an enduring American…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":781072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[106094,5229,25417,106525,11875,234249,1448,2830,1311,227963,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,177391],"class_list":["post-781439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-allentown","tag-america","tag-america-250","tag-commemoration","tag-heritage","tag-liberty-bell","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-revolutionary-war","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zion"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116537725295746953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}