The U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame may find a new home about an hours and 15 minutes from Lancaster adjacent to the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, formerly the Lehigh Velodrome.
According to an article in the Morning Call newspaper, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham announced Tuesday an agreement to provide 12 acres of county-owned land near the bike track for construction of a new 22,000-square-foot museum of cycling memorabilia. The agreement was approved by the Lehigh County commissioners on Wednesday.
If selected by the Hall of Fame, the $6.6 million museum would combine with the velodrome and the Rodale Fitness Park to create a three-pronged cycling attraction in Breinigsville. The proposed Hall of Fame would include a museum and exhibition hall, library, cafe and gift shop, the newspaper reports.
”Lehigh County is known as a national center for bicycling,” Cunningham is quoted as saying Tuesday in the Morning Call. ”This is the perfect place for a Bicycling Hall of Fame. The county velodrome is a long-standing, beloved destination for world-class athletes, nationwide enthusiasts, and our own local cycling fanatics.”
The Hall of Fame was located in a storefront museum in Somerville, N.J., but redevelopment pressure in the town has left the Hall homeless. The cycling memorabilia is now packed away in a warehouse. The Hall of Fame board solicited proposals from cities nationwide for a new location. Lehigh County will likely be in competition with Greensville, S.C., home of the U.S. national road championship race, and bicycling-friendly Davis, Calif., among other cities. It will likely be about 18 months before a chosen location is announced.
Dean Smith, president of the International Cycling Center , a organization of Lehigh Valley cycling enthusiasts working to bring the Hall of Fame to the velodrome, said their goal is to establish for cycling a mecca similar to what Cooperstown, N.Y. represents to baseball.
