The Liberty Bell from The Vet has been moved outside Citizens Bank Park

Thursday marks 15 years since Veterans Stadium, the former home of the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles, was imploded. To commemorate the anniversary, the Phillies made a special announcement today.

The Liberty Bell that hung at the highest point at Veterans Stadium in line with center field has officially been moved outside the third base gate at Citizens Bank Park, which is set to open for its 16th season next Thursday:

Coggin Tobaggan of Crossing Broad had reported in February that the Phillies had reacquired the bell from a food company that they had initially given it to for free.

“I wanted to let you know that we are no longer in possession of the Liberty Bell. A while back we were contacted by the Phillies organization about reacquiring the bell. After discussing it internally, we decided that the plans we had to display the bell were too ambitious for now, and returning the bell to the Phillies provided the best chance for it to be ‘resurrected’ and given a chance to be displayed and appreciated by Phillies fans again,” Sean Scollon, chief business intelligence officer at C.W. Dunnet and Co., told Crossing Broad earlier this year.

That the Phillies, an organization very in touch with their history, hadn’t held onto the bell and used it in some way until now is strange. The Eagles also would have had to be uninterested in the bell for it to not even be sold, but handed away.

The bell, as you can see in the image above, lit up and became the backdrop for many summer evenings in South Philadelphia. It unquestionably inspired the 52-foot-tall by 35-foot-wide Liberty Bell in right-center field at Citizens Bank Park that lights up, changes colors and swings after Phillies home runs and Phillies wins. The light bulbs around the old bell suggest it will be lit up outside Citizens Bank Park at night time.

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