America’s 250th Anniversary is coming soon! Ahead of the big day on July 4th, 2026, we’re celebrating the people, places, and things that have shaped not just our country but our county too. Read below to learn about some of the top historic locations in Lebanon County and enjoy some fun facts along the way!
1. Cornwall Iron Furnace
From 1742 to 1883, the Cornwall Iron Furnace was a top iron producer in Pennsylvania and a major arms supplier for the Revolutionary War. Today, much of the furnace still stands, marking it as America’s most complete charcoal-fueled ironmaking complex. Take a tour of this National Historic Landmark to see where men once labored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with the period’s hefty demand for iron.
Fun Fact: The Cornwall Iron Furnace used an entire acre of wood each day for making charcoal to fuel the furnace.
2. Union Canal Tunnel
The Union Canal Tunnel was built from May of 1825 to June of 1827 and remained in use until the 1880s. The Tunnel has since been designated as a National Historic Landmark, as well as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Today, the Union Canal Tunnel is surrounded by 110 acres of recreational area, but you can still experience a narrated boat ride through the canal as weather permits.
Fun Fact: The Union Canal Tunnel is the oldest existing water transportation tunnel in the United States.
3. Historic Schaefferstown
Founded in 1758, Schaefferstown is one of the oldest towns in Lebanon County, and it is home to three historic museums:
- The Alexander Schaeffer Farm, a rare example of the 18th century practice of including domestic and manufacturing activities under one roof.
- The Thomas R. Brendle Museum, a former meeting space for the Patriotic Order Sons of America and now a museum featuring many unique artifacts.
- The Gemberling-Rex House, a location on the National Register of Historic Places that serves as an example of the conflict between the English majority and the ethnic German minority, given the structural alterations it underwent around 1798.
Fun Fact: Schaefferstown was founded nearly a century before Lebanon County was formed.
4. Isaac Meier Homestead
The Isaac Meier Homestead was built around 1750 by Valentine Herckelrod. The home itself is 3,846 square feet in size with Germanic details in the eastern half and English Georgian influence in the western half. Beyond its structure, the homestead is largely known for its former resident Isaac Meier, the namesake of Myerstown who was mysteriously shot by an unknown person on the night of July 14, 1770, and died the next day.
Fun Fact: The home’s limestone walls are two feet thick.
5. Seltzer’s Smokehouse Meats
Seltzer’s Smokehouse Meats is the world’s largest producer of Lebanon Bologna! Fourth generation owned and-operated, Seltzer’s has been using the same hardwood smoking process and spice blend to make Lebanon Bologna since 1902. Visit their factory in Palmyra to take a tour of the smokehouses and learn the history of this unique company!
Fun Fact: What’s your bologna persona? Find out with our bologna personality quiz and order a free bologna persona sticker!
6. Lebanon Farmers Market
The Lebanon Farmers Market offers a cross section of Lebanon County where fresh produce, local poultry, and delicious baked goods can be found. Constructed in 1892, this historic market house was built on the site of the former Lebanon County Jail. This Jail made national news in the 1800s with the infamous murder case of the Blue Eyed Six, a case that is still studied in law textbooks today.
Fun Fact: The Blue Eyed Six were named for the exact reason you’d think: all six men had blue eyes.
7. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Lebanon
Completed in 1880, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Lebanon was built by New York architect Henry Martyn Congdon. Funded by Robert Coleman, who was known at the time as the “Iron King of Pennsylvania,” the church is dedicated to Coleman’s late wife Lillie. Today, St. Luke’s is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and stands as a stunning example of Victorian Gothic Architecture.
Fun Fact: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Lebanon was originally incorporated as Christ Church of Lebanon, Pa.
8. Pennsylvania National Guard Military Museum
Housed in a World War II-era barracks building on Fort Indiantown Gap—America’s Busiest National Guard Training Center—the PA National Guard Military Museum showcases items and weapons from the Civil War to the Gulf War. It also features displays depicting the history of the PA National Guard and the Gap. Given its location in a barracks building, a portion of the museum is set “the way it was” to showcase how the barracks would have looked in the 1940s with a chow line, cadre room, and medical room among many others.
Fun Fact: The Museum has thousands of items on display ranging from dog tags to military Jeeps.
9. Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery
In 1976, Fort Indiantown Gap was selected as the site of the national cemetery for the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania donated land to the Veterans Administration for the 677-acre site, which has over 60,000 interments. Also located in Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery is the Pennsylvania Veteran’s Memorial, which is the largest monument in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ cemeteries.
Fun Fact: Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery is larger than Arlington National Cemetery.
10. Chestnut Street Log House
The Chestnut Street Log House in Lebanon was built all the way back in 1772 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Standing at a story and a half tall, three bays wide, and one bay deep, the Chestnut Street Log House is now dwarfed by the modern-day homes that have been built up around it.
Fun Fact: The lot on which this home sits was purchased from George Steitz who was the founder of Steitztown, or what we know today as Lebanon!
11. Mount Gretna Playhouse
The Mount Gretna Playhouse is a historic open-air theatre that serves as a centerpiece within the quaint Chautauqua community of Mount Gretna. Originally built in 1892 by John Cilley, the Playhouse was rebuilt in 1995 after an estimated 150 tons of snow collapsed the roof. Each summer, the Playhouse stage comes to life with musical and theatrical performances, while the open-air setting allows for the sounds of nearby birds and cicadas to provide backing.
Fun Fact: Many Broadway stars have performed at the Playhouse including Bernadette Peters, Charlton Heston, and Sally Struthers, as well as over 50 Grammy Award-winning artists.
12. Light’s Fort
Built in 1742, Light’s Fort is the oldest building in Lebanon County. Throughout its long history, the Fort has served as a dwelling for the Light Family, a family-owned liquor distillery, a place of refuge during the French and Indian War, and the site of the first African Methodist Evangelical Church services in the county.
Fun Fact: An apple orchard used to sit south of Light’s Fort where a playground is found today.
13. Monroe Valley Chapel
The Monroe Valley Chapel is a one-story fieldstone chapel that was built between 1760 and 1800. The chapel is believed to have first been used as a place of worship by Moravians before it was taken over by Lutherans. From 1940 through the 1970s, squatters overtook much of the chapel’s property and the grounds eventually became overgrown with briars and underbrush. Since then, extensive efforts by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lebanon County have restored much of the property.
Fun Fact: Before schoolhouses were built in the area, the Monroe Valley Chapel served as both a schoolhouse and a chapel.
14. Mount Gretna Area Historical Society
As a town known for its quaint cottages and lakeside charm, it’s likely no surprise that the Mount Gretna Area Historical Society is found within an adorable little cottage. The Historical Society features a small museum with over 4,000 Gretna artifacts ranging from postcards to historic cottage relics to Merry-Go-Round animals.
Fun Fact: In the 1920s, Mount Gretna was home to an amusement park known as Kauffman Park which featured a rollercoaster larger than the Comet at Hersheypark.
15. Lebanon County Historical Society
The Stoy Museum at the Lebanon County Historical Society features over 20,000 artifacts and a number of engaging exhibits, from the general store and the barber shop to exhibits honoring the Coleman Family and local industries. The Historical Society also features a gift shop, auditorium, and library.
Fun Fact: The main structure of the Historical Society was built in 1786, and the upstairs was used as Lebanon County’s first courthouse in 1813.
16. Bindnagle Evangelical Lutheran Church
In 1753, Hans Bindnagle donated land for the building of a log church for the Bindnagle Lutheran Congregation. After the congregation expanded to over 160 members, it outgrew the log church and the Bindnagle Evangelical Lutheran Church was built. Largely unchanged from its original condition, the church features Federal-style architecture, arched doors and windows, and a sanctuary laid out in the form of a Greek cross.
Fun Fact: While Bindnagle Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1803, its congregation began meeting in private homes in the early 1700s.
17. Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church features three historic church buildings, each built in a different century. The Old Salem Lutheran Church, a rectangular Limestone structure, was constructed between 1796 and 1798, making it the oldest Lutheran Church in Lebanon. The Salem Memorial Chapel was built in 1898 and features a Gothic style with Richardsonian Romanesque influences. And the newest of the church’s buildings, the Richwine Fellowship Hall, was built in the late 20th century as a result of population growth within both the city and the congregation.
Fun Fact: The first Speaker of the United State House of Representatives, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, was once a pastor at Salem Lutheran.
18. Fort Zeller
Originally built as a log house in 1723, Fort Zeller is Pennsylvania’s oldest fort in existence. In 1745, the fort was re-built in the traditional Pennsylvania-German architectural style and was used as a place of refuge during the French and Indian War. The Fort itself sits atop a stream which provided its residents with drinking water and cold storage for food and water.
Fun Fact: Fort Zeller is also called the Heinrich Zeller House, and the second-floor bedroom features the oldest hanging shutter in Pennsylvania.
19. Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad Station
Built in 1885, the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad Station was funded by Robert Habersham Coleman, the same “Iron King of Pennsylvania” who funded St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Lebanon. Although the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad Company only had 22 miles of tracks, Coleman chose an elaborate design from architect George Watson Hewitt combining Late Victorian Eclectic, Flemish, Romanesque, and Chateauesque architectural styling.
Fun Fact: The Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad had an intense rivalry with the Cornwall Railroad, and the companies often raced their passenger trains from Cornwall to Lebanon.
20. Waterville Bridge
The Waterville Bridge is one of just three lenticular truss bridges in the United States that uses a Warren truss configuration. From 1890 to 1984, the bridge spanned Little Pine Creek in Waterville before being moved to Swatara State Park where it is preserved as a pedestrian bridge today.
Fun Fact: The Waterville Bridge is part of the Appalachian Trail as it carries the trail across Swatara Creek.
Celebrate 250 in the Valley!
Join Lebanon County’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, both on July 4th, 2026 and in the months leading up to the big day! Learn more and get involved with the Lebanon County Committee for America250PA by visiting LebanonPA250.com.
