A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
History
A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
Architecture -- Pennsylvania; Art -- Pennsylvania; Historic buildings -- Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania -- Guidebooks; Pennsylvania -- History
Formed March 6, 1812; named for Lehigh River, from an Indian name,
Lechauwekink (where there are forks); Indian trails forked in various
directions below Bethlehem. The Blue Mountains are north and the Lehigh
Hills south, containing large deposits of slate and cement. Chief
industries, agriculture and manufacturing.
ALLENTOWN, county seat, at junction of Jordan and Little Lehigh Creeks;
population 73,502; was settled in 1751 by Chief Justice William Allen, a
friend of the Penns; is entered from the south by, it is said, the
largest concrete bridge in the world, erected by a trolley company, 2650
feet long and 120 feet high; built in 1913. The city has an abundant
supply of pure water, pumped direct from the spring to the residences;
daily flow, 12,000,000 gallons. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, Fifth
and Hamilton Streets. First Presbyterian Church, North Fifth Street,
near Hamilton, Renaissance. Jail, North Fourth Street, near Linden,
feudal architecture, with tower 100 feet high, brown sandstone.
Architect G. A. Aschbach.
Allen Park, Fourth and Walnut Streets, contains “Trout Hall,” stone,
built, 1770, by James Allen, son of the founder, which will be occupied
by the Lehigh County Historical Society; West Park and River Park are
also in Allentown; west of the city is Dorney’s Park, along Cedar Creek.
In Center Square is the Soldiers’ Monument to the men of Lehigh County
in the Civil War; on the pedestal are bronze bas-reliefs depicting
scenes of war and reconciliation, and medallion busts of Generals Meade,
McClellan, Hancock, and Hartranft. United States post office, at the
corner of Sixth and Turner Streets, classic, built in 1906; brick and
Indiana limestone; architect, George B. Page, Philadelphia. Several fine
churches of brick or stone show Italian and Gothic architecture. The
Zion Reformed, Gothic, stone, built, 1840, Hamilton Street between Sixth
and Seventh, is notable for having sheltered the Liberty Bell and the
Christ Church bells, during British occupation of Philadelphia, in 1777;
marked by tablet, placed by the Liberty Bell Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution. The Rhoads House, 107-109 North Seventh Street,
built, 1762, by a Revolutionary patriot, is the oldest building in the
city.
MUHLENBERG COLLEGE with preparatory school, is beautifully located at
Twenty-sixth and Chew Streets, on campus of seventy-two acres; the
buildings, brick and stone, were built from 1903 to 1915; administration
building, English Renaissance, architects, Ruhl & Lange; contains
portraits, including one of Dr. Muhlenberg, by Gilbert Stuart; the late
Peter A. Gross, in 1914, provided by will for the founding of an art
school in Muhlenberg College, and an art museum in Allentown. Allentown
College for Women, Walnut Street between Thirtieth and Thirty-first
Streets, classic; and the new high school, North Seventeenth Street,
classic Ionic, are fine buildings. At Seventeenth and Chew Streets are
the State Hospital,
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