James Bell Tavern, Bill of Rights Birthplace
In Silver Spring Township, Pennsylvania, an old stone house was slated for demolition. In fact, on January 6th demolition was begun, but stopped when a local resident did some digging at the Cumberland County Historical Society and found that the house had some tremendous historical value.
Built in 1780, the structure was christened the James Bell Tavern, and it is recognized as the site where a meeting was held objecting to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, due to the feeling that the Constitution was too centralized. A meeting was held on July 3, 1788 which led to the development of documents that ended up being the Bill of Rights.
The fate of the stone house was almost sealed, in large part because most people in the surrounding area had no idea of the importance of the building. For now the demolition has been halted, but the sleuthing is fascinating, and the idea of the home of the Bill of Rights being torn down is certainly a metaphor for what is happening in politics today.
If Silver Spring Township officials and a local real estate developer didn’t know that an old stone house on Route 11 is the reputed birthplace of the U.S. Bill of Rights before they started demolition there last week, they definitely know now.
On Jan. 6, workers began demolishing a two-story stone house at 7086 Carlisle Pike in Silver Spring Township that most recently was the site of Stone House Auto Sales.
This just isn’t any stone house, however. Built in 1780 as the James Bell Tavern, the structure hosted the Stony Ridge Convention on July 3, 1788, a meeting of Anti-Federalists opposed to ratification of U.S. Constitution, which led to amending the document with the Bill of Rights.
Triple Crown Corporation, the property’s owner, legally obtained a permit from the township for the demolition, according to Christine Musser, a member of the township’s Conservation and Preservation Committee.
Musser said she was informed about the stone house’s history by an “outside source.” After “doing some digging” about the matter at the Cumberland County Historical Society, she alerted township officials about the matter.
Demolition of the historic structure was “put on hold” and discontinued on Jan. 7, Musser said. To her estimation, about a third of the building was demolished during the initial process.
“Triple Crown apparently had no clue of the building’s historical significance. It was an oversight,” Musser stated.
“Late Wednesday, January 6, township staff became aware that demolition of a building later identified as the Bell Tavern had begun by Triple Crown Corporation,” Silver Spring Township officials said in a news release issued Thursday. “Township staff issued a stop-work order on the demolition, and the developer complied. By that time, a portion of the building had been demolished. The stop-work order allowed us to assess the situation and whether the developer was in compliance with our ordinances.”
Source: m.cumberlink.com
Indicative of the neglect of historical structures. This also represent the dismantling of the actual Bill of Rights!
That’s just and old house, that’s just an old piece of paper….
Yep,
Leave it to materialist, disgusting America to destroy history.
Isn’t this just what is being done to all the Historical Christian Buildings in the Middle East by Isis? Destroy and change Christian History. Won’t work. You can knock down a building, but you will never deter Christians from the truth of Jesus any more than you can destroy our History, Constitution and Bill of Rights here in America.
Sad thing
Think about what you said…nobody around there knew……..you have to have seen a lot of history books in last twenty or so years esp.since affirmative action. ..they have gotten more and, more politically correct……My eldest daughters eight grade history book had about three pages about the railroad from east to west…..I was amazed that the vast majority of workers were not the Chinese and the Irish men….even though the pictures had these groups ,I’m not saying there no blacks working but this book had paragraphs talking about their contributions to building it and if you took all of what was wrote about chinese and Irish. ..might been two paragraphs. Unfortunally many things studied by elementary and junior high students has been dumbing down them.
It’s been going on for years….but it has really gotten worse in last nine years…..politically correct literalism
Lynn Carden That is NOT what I said…that it was inside of things called QUOTES. That was a DIRECT QUOTE from the Truth and Action article that you probably didn’t even bother to read. If you think that quote is inaccurate then you should take it up with Truth and Action.
As far as eighth grade history book…I have literally no idea how that is suppose to relate…
When they starting removing confederate flags,monuments…esp from national battle sites and only groups that try to keep history alive were unset but we had BLM group. and other racists groups..demanding saying they were offer ended and it was against their civil rights….what about everyone’s right to know Real history??? When the president didn’t raise a finger about the vandalizing of public statues. Some of us saw what was happening. …
so sad. we need to focus more on teaching our American history to every citizen of this country.
Not mistake