The Liberty Bell was kept away from the British during the American Revolutionary War in Allentown. After George Washington lost the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia did not have defense, and got ready for the British to attack. The Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania said that eleven bells, like the State House bell and the bells from Philadelphia's Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, should be taken down and taken away from the city to stop the British, who would melt the bells down to and make into cannons, from taking the bells. The bells were moved north to Northampton-Towne, and put in the basement of the Old Zion Reformed Church, in what is now center of Allentown. Today, a shrine in the church's basement marks the same spot where the Liberty Bell was.