Allentown
Allentown is a city located in the territory of Pennsylvania. The city is located within the county Lehigh. It is the administrative center of the county. Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania. The population is about 118 000 people.
The city of Allentown is located along the river bed. In the city is located the College Cedar Crest and the college Muhlenberg.
The place where today the center of Allentown is, was founded as Northampton Town in 1762 by William Allen, a wealthy merchant and former mayor of Philadelphia. The land on which the city was built, belonged to Allen.
Allen hoped that Northampton would displace Easton, which was the administrative center of Northampton County and will become a commercial center because of its location along the river bed and its proximity to Philadelphia. Allen gave the property to his son James in 1767. Three years later, in 1770, James built a summer residence in the new town, near the site of the former hunting lodge of his father.
The city was officially renamed Allentown on April 16, 1838, the name is that of its founder, William Allen. It is officially recognized town in 1867. Allentown is a city with historical significance, as this is where the Liberty Bell was successfully hidden from the British during the American Revolutionary War.
In September 1777 the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia left the city defenseless and prepared to attack the British. An order had been issued to conceal eleven bells, so the British conquered them and to purge them of guns. Among these was the Liberty Bell.
All the bells were taken to the town of Northampton Town and hidden in the basement of the old Zionist transformational church where today downtown is located. Today there is the museum of Liberty Bell.
Construction of the canal bed expands trade of the city and its industrial capacity. The city became a major center of heavy industry. This has attracted many new people in the area, arriving to work in new factories. Long period of economic boom was stopped by the panic in 1873 and the long stagnation.
Except in the processing of iron, Allentown has a tradition in the brewing of beer. There are several famous breweries. Economic recovery in the early twentieth century was due to the boom of the silk and textile processing industry.
In the valley of the river bed in 1928 there are over one hundred and forty-processing workshops for silk. In the thirties of the twentieth century silk trade declined after the market goes for synthetic silk. The last silk mill in Allentown was closed in 1989.
