High German Evangelical Reformed Church facts for kids
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High German Evangelical Reformed Church
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Zion United Church of Christ in Allentown, Pennsylvania, October 2011
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Location | 622 West Hamilton Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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Area | 0.5 acres (0.20 ha) |
Built | 1762 |
Architect | Lewis Jacoby |
Architectural style | Late Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 83002259 |
Added to NRHP | July 28, 1983 |
High German Evangelical Reformed Church, also known as Zion Reformed and Zion United Church of Christ, is a historic Evangelical and Reformed church at 622 West Hamilton Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
The church played a historic role in the American Revolution as the site hiding the Liberty Bell successfully under the church's floor boards from September 1777 to June 1778 during the British Army's occupation of the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia.
Today, inside the church, the Liberty Bell Museum exists to honor the role Allentown and Allentown-area American patriots played in successfully concealing and protecting the Liberty Bell during the British occupation of Philadelphia.
History
The High German Evangelical Reformed Church was first constructed as a log structure on its present day site in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1762. Nine years later, in 1773, the log structure was replaced with a simple brick structure in a vernacular federal style a few yards north of the log church's location.
Liberty Bell's hiding
In September 1777, as American patriots prepared for a British Army attack on the colonial capital of Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell and other bells in Philadelphia were ordered taken down and were hastily transported to present-day Allentown (then called Northampton Towne), where they were successfully hidden under the church's floor boards until June 1778 when the British abandoned Philadelphia.
In 1838, the church was enlarged and may have incorporated the 1762 structure into the walls of the current building's boiler room. The building was doubled in size from 1886 to 1888 in a gothic revival style by architect Lewis Jacoby.
In 1983, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Liberty Bell Museum, commemorating the location of the Liberty Bell's hiding in 1777, is located in the church's basement and is open to visitors.