Abraham Blumer, Allentown, Lehigh County

I'm learning a lot about Pennsylvania history while doing this project, as you might expect. However, the lesson that I'm learning most often is that, as much as I know about the history of Pennsylvania, and Lehigh County in particular, I don't know as much as I think I do. I'm constantly being surprised.

I celebrated my birthday earlier this month, and my husband Kevin and I spent part of the day at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, of which we are members. (Hi, zoo friends!) It was a great day, with beautiful weather, and I got to feed Murphy the giraffe. As we were leaving, I checked the list of historical markers and realized that there was one more or less on our way home, so we headed for the Jordan United Church of Christ just off of route 309. I was puzzled, to be honest, because I've driven past that church many times over the years and I have never noticed a blue and gold historical marker.

Well, that's because there isn't one.

Fort Allen and Fort Allen Well, Weissport, Carbon County

Edit 8/20/2025: This post has been updated! For the more recent version, click here.

I mostly know Weissport as the little town under the route 209 bridge, which every August hangs up signs advertising their "Redneck Festival" over Labor Day weekend. I also know it from my article about Gnadenhütten, where I mentioned that Weissport was eventually formed from two of the three Moravian settlements by that name. 

In the Gnadenhütten article, I mentioned that Fort Allen was built as a direct result of the attack on the Moravians, and that I'd be getting to that in a later post - and here we are. This is another two-fer, because there are two markers connected to the fort; the well, which is the only part of the fort still existing today, has a marker all its own.

Ben Austrian, Kempton, Berks County

I'm pretty familiar with the tiny community of Kempton. I used to volunteer monthly at Hawk Mountain, which dominates the landscape. Every fourth Sunday I'd drive through Kempton, an extremely pretty place at the foot of the Kittatinny Ridge mountains, and judge how close I was to being late for my shift by the visual landmarks along the way. One thing that always caught my eye was the distant hill dotted with white headstones; I always thought to myself that I should drive over sometime and actually have a look at Historic New Bethel Church (as the sign calls it), but I never got around to actually doing so.

Then this blog happened, and there turned out to be a marker there, so I finally made the drive.

Derry Church and Churchyard, Hershey, Dauphin County

Four times a year (barring unexpected circumstances), I make the trek to Dauphin County, where the White Rose Irregulars of York gather in a private room at Leeds Restaurant and Lounge. We're what's called a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, and get together quarterly to share our mutual love of all things related to Sherlock Holmes. A few of them promised to read this, so in case they did - hi everybody! Also, when dining at Leeds, I  can't say enough good things about the fish and chips, which are the best I've had anywhere, or about Anne, our designated server.

This past weekend was our summer gathering, and I brought my best friend Andrea with me for her first foray into Sherlockiana. Since we were sort of in the neighborhood, I proposed that on the way home, we stop in the wonderful community of Hershey to see if we couldn't collect a few markers for this blog. We picked up a few pieces of chocolate and then went to Derry Presbyterian Church, which has the distinction of being home to two markers. As such, this piece is a little longer than usual, and has more photos too.

Edited 5/8/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about God's Acre by listening today on Spotify or your preferred podcast provider.

The Fries Rebellion of 1799, Quakertown, Bucks County

During our visit to the Sun Inn two weeks ago, I talked briefly about the Fries Rebellion and how the inn served as a holding place for some of the arrested rebels until they were liberated. I also said that the incident has its own marker and I'd be covering it in a future blog post. Over this past weekend, my husband and I were in Philadelphia for his birthday, and on our way home we stopped in Quakertown to get the details.

All I knew, going in, was what I told you in the previous post about the Fries Rebellion and the fact that the sign was at the Historic Red Lion Inn on Main Street in Quakertown. I've driven through Quakertown a fair few times, usually on my way to its farmer's market. (The market has a pretty decent used video game store.) I knew the sign was at the inn, but I was puzzled because I'd never seen it - as it turns out, the inn is on Main Street, but the marker is around the corner, at the side of the building.

Edited 3/5/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about the Fries Rebellion by listening to or downloading the episode today at Audio.com, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

The Sun Inn, Bethlehem, Northampton County

Today's blog post is about a building which can truthfully claim that "George Washington slept here." It's a slightly haphazard article, because it encompasses two visits and some technical difficulties. Like most of the other landmarks in the vicinity, the Sun Inn was part of the Moravian settlement of Bethlehem; its history, however, is very unique.

First Cement, Coplay, Lehigh County

The subject of this blog post is unique in that it's the only one of these historical markers which I can visit by taking a fairly short and safe walk. The back of my residence is connected to Saylor Park, home of the Saylor Kilns, by the Ironton Rail Trail, where I've spent a lot of time since I moved here. A quick walk, or an even quicker bicycle ride, brings me into the little community of Coplay.

Despite the way it's spelled, Coplay is pronounced COP-lee. I recently learned the origin of the name; the borough is named for the Coplay Creek, which runs near it, and the creek in turn was named after Kolapechka, the son of Native American chieftain Paxanosa, who lived near the creek's origin point in Schnecksville. (As you might guess, growing up in the Lehigh Valley sort of requires you to be a very good speller.) Anyway, Coplay is a very small borough, with a strong industrial history that's partly due to the influence of our old buddy David Thomas. But that's for another day; today we're not talking about iron, but cement.

(Thanks to Facebook's Scott Nagy for pointing out a small error in this article.)