1739 Tavern That Sheltered the Liberty Bell
898 Allentown Road, Telford, PA 18969
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
American tavern menu; entrees roughly $15-30. No cover charge to dine.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1739 building with narrow doorways and original wood floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1739 · Liberty Bell Hiding Place · Underground Railroad Station · Colonial Era Tavern · Prohibition Era Speakeasy
The Rising Sun Inn was built in 1739 by Peter Gerhart on a stretch of Allentown Road that, by the late colonial period, served as the principal route between Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley. The fieldstone building sat at a working stop for travelers, drovers, and freight teamsters moving iron and grain south to the city. Behind the inn, the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek powered nearby mills.
The building's most cited Revolutionary moment came in September 1777, when the Continental Congress ordered the Liberty Bell evacuated from Philadelphia ahead of the British occupation. The bell, along with the chimes of Christ Church, traveled north under wagon escort and is recorded as having sheltered overnight at Gerhart's Tavern on its way to Allentown. A bell-shaped cutout in the foundation behind a former water tank is shown to visitors as the storage niche; it is the basis for the building's later nickname, the Bell House.
In the antebellum decades, the inn became a station on the Underground Railroad. Tunnels were dug into the basement to hide freedom seekers overnight. According to the current ownership, a previously sealed hidden room was uncovered during recent renovations. The inn sat between Seth Luken's station on Forty Foot Road and the next stop near Quakertown.
During Prohibition, the proprietor was arrested multiple times for continuing to serve alcohol concealed on the premises. The building has operated as a tavern, restaurant, and event space across most of its 280-plus-year history. Today the Rising Sun Inn functions as a full-service restaurant under the address 898 Allentown Road in Telford. Dining rooms include the Liberty Bell Room and the original tavern.
Sources
The dominant paranormal report at the Rising Sun Inn concerns a figure tavern staff and regulars call Scary Mary. Local accounts identify her as a former innkeeper who died on the property, though the historical record on this point is thin and the name itself appears to date from the late 20th century. Most sightings occur on the second floor, above the current kitchen and dining rooms, in spaces that historically functioned as guest chambers when the building operated as a wayside inn.
Reports collected from staff and patrons describe the recurring elements common to old-tavern hauntings: brief sightings of a female figure on the upper landing, footsteps overhead in unoccupied rooms, voices in empty hallways, and small objects or pieces of furniture found rearranged after closing. Members of the City Lights Paranormal Society conducted an overnight investigation at the inn and reported capturing several electronic voice phenomena and a brief video segment they describe as showing a figure crossing a room. The video has not been independently authenticated.
The inn's narrow Revolutionary and Underground Railroad history adds atmospheric weight to the reports. Patrons sometimes describe a sense of presence in the basement near the entrance to the former tunnel system, and along the foundation niche associated with the Liberty Bell's overnight stay. Staff handle the lore matter-of-factly, naming the second floor and basement when asked rather than promoting the haunting as the inn's primary identity.
Notable Entities
Reserve a table in the Liberty Bell Room or the original 1739 tavern. The dining areas occupy the same rooms where the Liberty Bell was hidden overnight in 1777, and second-floor sightings of a former innkeeper called Scary Mary are concentrated above the kitchen.
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