Allentown: History
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Allentown History
Allentown, Pennsylvania, History:
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Originally inhabited by Native Americans of the Lenni-Lenape tribe, Allentown was founded by chief justice William Allen in 1762 as a community called Northamptontown. Even in its early days, many people referred to the settlement as "Allen's Town," although the city's name was not officially changed to Allentown until the 1830s. Most of the Lehigh Valley's early European inhabitants were Germans, whom the English referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch (derived from the German word "Deutsch"). In 1777, during the American Revolution, the Liberty Bell was hidden in the basement of Zion's Reformed United Church of Christ in Allentown when the British occupied Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell Shrine, a popular historical attraction in Allentown, stands today as a reminder of this event.
In 1811, Allentown was incorporated as a borough and was chosen as the county seat of the newly formed Lehigh County the following year. During the 1820s the completion of the Lehigh Canal sparked development in the area by opening up distribution routes for various industries. The Lehigh Valley's first commercially successful iron furnace was built in 1840, and the iron industry fueled the area's economy for the next three decades. In 1867, Allentown was incorporated as a city.
By the 1870s, many towns in the Lehigh Valley were forced to develop alternative industries as the demand for iron declined as steel became more popular. Allentown turned its efforts to silk manufacturing and by the early 1900s became known as "Silk City." One iron company that continued operations was Bethlehem Iron, which produced armor plate for battleships through the late 1800s. Bethlehem Iron became Bethlehem Steel at the turn of the century, and quickly became one of the nation's largest steel manufacturers.
Allentown today is home to more than 105,000 people and remains an important industrial and commercial center in the Lehigh Valley Region.
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Allentown, Pennsylvania
Eight thousand years before European settlers crossed the Atlantic, ancestors of the Delaware tribe were thriving in the Lehigh Valley. The city now known as Allentown stands on a tract of land purchased in 1735 by William Allen from a friend of the family of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. William Allen, who served for several years as chief justice of Pennsylvania, built a hunting and fishing lodge on the geographically isolated site, which was first known as "Allen's little town." Allen and his son had hoped to turn the lodge into a trading center but the river was too shallow for boat traffic and the American Revolution of 1776 intervened. When the British captured Philadelphia in 1777, the Liberty Bell was carried to Allentown where it was concealed in a local church and later returned to Philadelphia upon British evacuation of that city.
By the early 1800s Allentown was little more than a sleepy marketing town for local farmers. However, when the Lehigh Canal was opened in 1829 to carry coal from the area north to the Delaware Canal and east to New York, and south to Philadelphia, Allentown for the first time had access to outside markets. Even more important was the availability of water power, and a growing number of businesses began to settle in the Lehigh Valley, including the country's first commercially successful iron furnace powered by anthracite coal. The resulting boom in the production of pig iron began to fade by the turn of the century when English advances in steel technology lessened the demand for iron. Nearby Bethlehem Iron was the only Lehigh Valley metals industry to successfully make the transition from iron to steel. Allentown, earlier than other northeastern industrial areas, was forced to diversify its economic base. With the arrival of the silk industry in the 1880s Allentown came to be known as "silk city." Other light industries followed and Allentown leaders determined to never again depend on one business for the city's survival. In the early 1900s Mack Trucks, Inc., moved to the city and remained one of the city's largest employers for most of the century.
World War II gave a boost to the Lehigh Valley's economy, but thereafter synthetics began to replace silk in the manufacture of clothing, the cement works phased out many operations, and the steel companies began to lay off workers. As has been the case with many industrial cities, improved highways, large tracts of available, affordable land, and the demand for larger homes encouraged development outside the city. The 1980s saw expansion in suburban shopping centers, industrial parks, and office buildings. Allentown and the surrounding region have benefitted from the completion of an interstate highway in 1989, which has promoted economic development, and from an influx of persons fleeing high prices and overcrowding in New York City, Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
Today the Lehigh Valley supports a diversity of businesses and industries, having moved from what was once a primarily manufacturing base. The city has also begun an intensive revitalization of its downtown area, which includes plans for a multi-purpose complex on what was once industrial property along the Lehigh River. Numerous industrial facilities will be renovated at the same time, providing the area with a much-needed facelift and tying into Mayor Afflerbach's plan to create a "safer, cleaner, more prosperous city in which to live, work, play, and invest."
Historical Information: Lehigh County Historical Society and Museum, Old Courthouse, PO Box 1548, Allentown, PA 18105; telephone (610)435-1074
