Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
Of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, only one arrived in America as an indentured servant — a penniless young Irishman who paid for his passage with years of labor shoveling coal into an iron furnace. His name was George Taylor.
The building he would one day call home is the 1753 Bachmann Publick House located at 169 Northampton Street in Easton, Pennsylvania.
The Bachmann Publick House was built in 1753 and is the oldest standing building in the city. Over nearly three centuries, the limestone tavern served as Northampton County's first courtroom, the home of a Declaration signer, and a gathering place for colonial America's most consequential figures. It is now a living history museum operated by the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society.
Jacob and Katrinna Bachmann built the tavern in 1753 — the same year Easton was formally laid out as a town. The date stone was hidden behind plaster for over two centuries, not uncovered until 1991. From the start, the building had a double purpose: the ground floor was a public taproom and inn, while the second floor housed Northampton County's first court.
Until 1766, when Easton's first purpose-built courthouse opened in Centre Square, colonial justice was administered in that upstairs room — merchants, surveyors, and landowners climbing those stairs to transact official county business.
During the French and Indian War between 1754 to 1763 — Easton sat at the Pennsylvania frontier's edge, a hub for colonial diplomats, militia officers, and Native American delegations. The most significant event was the October 1758 Treaty of Easton, in which thirteen Native American nations reached a landmark peace agreement with Pennsylvania and New Jersey with more than five hundred Indigenous people in attendance during the outdoor ceremony.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have attended court sessions at the Bachmann House during this period — according to both the Sigal Museum and historian Richard F. Hope — although the documentary record remains incomplete.
In 1761, the Bachmann family lost the property through foreclosure. George Taylor purchased it at a sheriff's sale and used it as his Easton base while operating the Durham Iron Works in Bucks County.
In July of 1776, the Pennsylvania Assembly appointed him to the Continental Congress to replace delegates who refused to vote for independence.
On August 2, Taylor signed the engrossed Declaration: one of only eight foreign-born signers, the only former indentured servant among the fifty-six, and the only ironmaster.
Three other Declaration signers are documented guests at the Inn: John Adams of Massachusetts, William Ellery of Rhode Island, and William Whipple of New Hampshire.
On February 23, 1781, George Taylor died at 65 years old in a house he rented in Easton, Pennsylvania today known as the Parsons-Taylor House - less than a 10-minute walk from the Buchmann Publik House.
The Bachmann House still stands on the same corner where it stood in 1753 and is open to anyone who wants to walk the floor where George Taylor walked.
Eighty percent of the building is original with exceptional care taken to match the reconstruction with five working fireplaces and a walk-in open hearth.
Its walls held a colonial courtroom before the Revolution and a Declaration signer after it. That continuity is rare. In a country that tears things down, The 1753 Bachmann Publick House stands at 169 Northampton Street at the corner of Second Street in Easton, Pennsylvania. To learn more about it visit the sigalmuseum.org. The building is also a stop on the George Taylor Trail. Information is available at discoverlehighvalley.com.
Information for this episode was provided by the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society / Sigal Museum (sigalmuseum.org); the Easton Post walking tour researched by historian Richard F. Hope; Discover Lehigh Valley's George Taylor Trail; the Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia; the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (dsdi1776.com); and the National Archives Founders Online database.
