Quakertown Borough was originally settled as Richland and the Great Swamp by members of the Society of Friends in the early 18th century on William Penn's original land holdings, a 1,000 acre tract called the Manor of Richland. As a crossroad village with a tavern, it became a stopover for stagecoaches and commercial traffic between Allentown and Philadelphia. Quakertown was the site of the Fries Rebellion in 1799 and was part of the Underground Railroad. Although it was the core of an extensive community of Welsh and German farmers, the village center remained quite small until the mid-nineteenth century. By 1820, Quakertown contained approximately twelve dwellings. The construction of the North Pennsylvania Railroad in 1855 spurred growth in the area, and by the late 1860's an unincorporated village known as Richland Centre had sprung up around the railroad station; by 1880 the town had a population of nearly 1,800 people. The railroad and national economic expansion following the Civil War changed Quakertown from a tiny village to a bustling commercial center, with local industry producing cigars, boots, shoes, tools, harnesses, wheel spokes, and stoves. During the Revolutionary War, the Liberty Bell was moved from Philadelphia to prevent the British from melting it down for ammunition, and on September 18, 1777, six days after leaving Philadelphia, it was stored overnight behind Evan Foulke's house at Liberty Hall near the corner of Broad and Main Streets before continuing to Allentown the next day. The Quakertown Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, and Quakertown includes Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian architecture, with Liberty Hall and the Enoch Roberts House among buildings listed separately on the National Register.