Hoping for a last-minute deal to save Liberty Bell Museum
The clock is winding down on Allentown’s Liberty Bell Museum.
It has only about another two weeks to reach an agreement to stay at the historic Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ. If a deal isn’t reached, the museum could be looking for a new home after 61 years.
Everyone in Allentown should be rooting for a deal to occur.
This has been an emotional situation. I’ve held back on commenting about this dispute because I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. I wanted to give people a chance to calm down and negotiate out of the spotlight.
But with the deadline nearing, a dose of encouragement is necessary.
The Liberty Bell Museum is a treasure. It’s where countless Allentown kids have gotten a hands-on lesson about the Revolutionary War — including ringing a replica Liberty Bell — and learned the big role their hometown played in it.
Last year, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission recognized the location with a state historic marker.
I hope everyone in the Lehigh Valley is familiar with the story. For those who aren’t, the church was where the Liberty Bell was stashed to keep it out of the hands of the British.
The bell, and 10 others, were slipped out of Philadelphia and hauled to Allentown — then known as Northamptontown — in 1777 and hidden beneath the church floorboards for nearly a year. The church at the time was known as Zion’s German Reformed Church.
The museum was founded in 1962 to tell the story. Among its artifacts is the state’s official replica of the Liberty Bell. Each state was issued a replica. Appropriately, Pennsylvania placed its bell at the church.
The museum’s future is in doubt because the church recently was sold. The museum and the new church owner, Resurrected Life Community Church, have been unable to reach a deal on a lease.
In February, church senior pastor Gregory Edwards sent the museum a letter saying the church would not enter into a lease agreement with the museum.
The church had proposed a 15-year-lease. It would have subsidized the first three years of the museum’s rent before increasing it to a market rate price of $3,412 per month by year five, then increasing it 3% annually.
The museum previously paid no rent under a 99-year lease with Zion’s congregation. The museum board voted down the offer from Resurrected Life Community
Church.
Negotiations have been ongoing, though. The Morning Call’s Lindsay Weber reported a few weeks ago that the museum has until April 2 to reach an agreement.
The museum had a sweetheart deal with Zion’s church. It can’t expect to get the same deal from the building’s new owner, and I hope it isn’t negotiating with that expectation.
The building is old and costly to maintain. Resurrected Life Community Church is growing and needs income. It also rightfully recognizes that space in Allentown’s Center City business district is coveted and has value.
That said, I hope church leadership would be flexible. Being the home of the Liberty Bell Museum would be a selling point for the congregation.
Edwards did not return my call Wednesday.
Museum board President Dennis Blankowitsch told me
Wednesday the goal is to come to an agreement so the museum can “stay where the actual history took place.”
He said the museum is looking at alternate sites, though, in case a move would be necessary: “We’ve had some offers from people and we need to go look and see what’s out there.”
Real estate developer Nat Hyman told me a few weeks ago he would offer the museum space for $1 a year at a vacant building he owns at Gordon Street and American Parkway that has ties to the Revolutionary War. The building is well-known. It’s the one with the giant “Allentown” mural painted on a blue wall facing American Parkway.
“I think it would be a crime to lose the museum,” Hyman said. “I want to see it stay in Allentown.”
A plaque situated in a large rock outside the building’s front entrance says: “Site of prison camp where Continental troops guarded Hessian prisoners captured in the Battle of Trenton December 25, 1776.”
The plaque says it was placed there in 1926 by the citizens of Allentown and the Liberty Bell Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Museum board members plan to tour the building soon, Hyman told me Wednesday.
Blankowitsch confirmed Wednesday that Hyman’s property is one of those the museum board is considering. He said another offer of space came from the Americus Hotel, which is about half a block from the current site.
He said the board is happy others are interested in making sure the museum has a home.
“They recognize the importance of what this means not only to Allentown, but the U.S.,” he said.
Americus owner Albert Abdouche told me museum board members plan to visit the hotel Monday. He said he needs to know how much space the museum would need to develop possible lease terms. The bell would be displayed in the lobby for free, he said.
He said the lobby is the perfect place because it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and visitors would have access to refreshments while checking it out.
“People can see the bell, they can have coffee, they can eat lunch,” Abdouche said.
He said the hotel would be a good fit because it is historic. It opened in 1927 and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
“You need the right atmosphere,” Abdouche said.
The Liberty Bell Museum has much more than the replica Liberty Bell. There is a large mural, artwork and relics, including a piece of one of the wagons that ferried the bell to the church.
Blankowitsch told me several historical societies have offered to take items from the museum’s collection if necessary.
The Lehigh County Historical Society has offered to house and display items if the museum loses its space at the church, Executive Director Joe Garrera told me Wednesday.
“It should be in a museum setting,” he said.
“We think we have a responsibility,” he said. “We have the platform. We have the location and the wherewithal to do it.”
Garrera stressed, though, that the historical society would rather not have to provide that service.
“We hope it doesn’t come down to that,” he said. “We don’t want to see that happen.”
The best outcome would be for the museum to remain where it is, he said.
“That’s where the event occurred,” he said. “You can better understand it and absorb it by being in the lower level of that church.”
Let’s hope that happens.