Hertiage Building Tottering Under Foreclosure Hammer

Easton Heritage Alliance tripped up on a loan and the result was the foreclosure of Bachmann Public House on February 2006. Officials in Northampton County are concerned and do not want to lose the oldest building in the city.

The General Purpose Authority is scheduled to meet and discuss the issue at its next session. County officials have already given their green signal and approval notice to go ahead to find ways and means to protect the heritage site.

Councilman Roan Angle agrees in principle and does not want to see the historical building go into wrong hands. At the root of the problem is that people owe them money and they are doing nothing about it.

Eastern Heritage Alliance is a non-profit organization. The group operated the building as a museum at Second and Northampton streets. However circumstances compelled them to close it down. In the following months Eastern Heritage Alliance failed to pay $5000,000 on a county loan that had been issued by the General Purpose Authority to Bachmann Rehabiliation Project in 2001. Roan Angle said that he had offered to purchase the building. The idea was to have the Eastern Heritage Alliance go ahead with plans to make the upkeep of the site self-sustaining. His complaint was that they were not interested in doing that and so his decision was that ‘enough is enough’.

Another Councilman, J. Michael Dowd said that the County should definitely plan out long-term projects for the preservation of history for the future. Under no circumstances should control over it be given up. The County should own it as it is interwoven with the history and legend of Northampton County.

County Executive, John Stoffa echoed these sentiments and plans in broadcasting a national request for proposals from non-profit groups to keep alive the heritage site. Angle added that he would very much like Lafayette College get involved in the fray. The bottom line is that on no account should the County lose what is part and parcel of its own identity.

The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce had shown interest in purchasing the unit but later gave up the plans in the autumn of last year. Another proposal came up from an anonymous buyer who wanted to purchase the Bachmann for the purpose of running it as before as a museum. But that too fell through.

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