Politics & Government

Lehigh County Organizing Bicentennial Celebrations

The county hopes to pay for its celebrations and projects without dipping into tax dollars.

Lehigh County plans to turn 200 in style next year with a two-day celebration, a coffee table history book, legacy project and its own Hall of Fame.

Last year, County Executive Don Cunningham established a bicentennial committee that has been putting together festivities to commemorate the county’s history. Lehigh County was created out of Northampton County on March 6, 1812, as the nation was getting ready to fight Great Britain in the War of 1812.

The county hopes to pay for its celebrations and projects without dipping into tax dollars. On Wednesday, county commissioners had the first reading of a bill to establish procedures for donations to its Bicentennial Celebration Account. Commissioners Daniel McCarthy and Dean Browning said they would oversee the account.

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The Committee is also seeking donations of items that might have historical value to the county.

Among the festivities planned is a gala fundraiser on Nov. 11 at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Center in Allentown. On March 10-11, the county will hold its community celebration at the Agri-Plex of the Allentown Fairgrounds on March 10-11. It hopes to get community groups, churches, youth groups and historical societies involved with exhibits and entertainment.

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The Bicentennial Committee is also creating a Hall of Fame. Those nominated must be living and must have been born in the county or lived or worked here at some time. The committee will consider nominees who’ve been successful in business, the arts, athletics, education, science and medicine, literature and journalism, government and the military and innovation and philanthropy. Members of the public are invited to make nominations. The deadline for nominations is June 30 and can be submitted at the county’s web site of www.lehighcounty.org.

Local history writer Frank Whelan has been commissioned to write a coffee table keepsake book that will include photos, maps and stories that tell the history of the county. He’ll have help from a committee of historians and archivists. The book will be for sale next year.

To better promote a piece of county history, the committee has chosen the George Taylor House in Catasauqua as its legacy project. It is working on a master plan to determine how the home – built for one the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and now on the National Register of Historic Places --  can be enhanced and become better known in and out of the county.

 The bicentennial logo was created by Bethlehem artist Dina Hall.  

 

 


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