On this site in 1766, the first church and schoolhouse in the City of Lebanon was erected. A bell cast in 1773 hangs in the tower of this building and proclaimed in Lebanon County the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The first regular pastor, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, was president of the convention that adopted the Constitution of the United States and speaker of the first House of Representatives. The cornerstone of this building was laid in 1796, and the building was consecrated two years later. Old Salem has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior on June 28, 2010.