The small building located at 1237 W. Broad St. in Quakertown was built in 1772. At only 15-feet-by-15-feet, it was originally an addition to a log home.
When Abel Robert’s son married a girl who lived in Delaware, it was decided to build an addition to the original log house to accommodate the newly married couple.
To make the bride feel more at home, the addition was built in traditional Colonial style, which was common to the Delaware area. This is why it has the half gambrel roof. It is the only building in this style (a two-sided roof with two slopes on each side) remaining in Quakertown Borough.
The building has been restored to its original beauty on the inside with wide wood plank flooring, and detailed wood molding. The original structure didn’t have a staircase to the second floor and a tight corkscrew stair was added at a later point. The building is only one room downstairs and one room upstairs with fireplaces.
Just like the Burgess Foulke House it’s decorated and furnished with generous donations from our community.
There is a replica of the Liberty Bell out front of the building that can be rung by visitors. It recognizes the fact that the famous bell and many others like it were once there.
In the midst of the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia was about to be occupied by British General William Howe and his troops. There was a practice of the English to melt down town bells for munitions, and to stop the bells from being used to send messages within the city.
To keep them safe, Founding Father John Hancock ordered the removal of all church and public building bells from Philadelphia.
At this point it wasn’t even known as the Liberty Bell, it was simply the State House Bell.
In September 1777, wagons were sent from Bethlehem and Allentown to Philadelphia to remove the revered bells. Farmers, who regularly brought their goods into Philadelphia to sell them, filled their wagons with the bells and covered them with manure, hay and whatever camouflage they could use to fool enemy troops or enemy sympathizers. Some of the wagons were decoys and took different routes.
The wagons also had some special protection with Col. Thomas Polk and his command of the 4th North Carolina Regiment of Continental Line, after its battle at Brandywine and before it joined General George Washington at Valley Forge.
The soldiers guarded the bells behind Liberty Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1777, and the officers slept at the Red Lion Inn (now McCoole’s at the Historic Red Lion Inn), which was a very common stagecoach stop between Allentown and Philadelphia.
The next day they left to finish the journey to Zion Church in what was then Northampton Town (now Allentown).
The wagon carrying the Liberty Bell broke, which is not much of a surprise as the bell weighs 2,001 pounds. But the bells arrived safely and were returned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1778.
Sometime later, the log house was torn down. Over time, the house has been used as a feed store and an auto parts store, with its last business being a barbershop before it was purchased by Quakertown Borough in 1977. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
If you’d like to visit Liberty Hall please call us to schedule your free tour 267-227-3864.
Christina Landis is president of the Quakertown Historical Society.
“Heralding Our History” is a weekly feature. Each month, the Herald delves into the history of one of its towns.
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