Allentown Real Estate
More often than not, Allentown, Pennsylvania may be better known for the musical lyrics of pop musician Billy Joel rather than for its vital role as an industrial boom town. But, the city was on the national map long before Joel made it famous in 1982.
Even so, Joel’s insightful lyrics were not far from the truth as he described the city more than 20 years ago.
While many of Allentown's major industrial businesses have disappeared since the ‘80s as a result of foreign competition and other economic factors, the small city continues to serve as the corporate headquarters for several large, global companies including Agere Systems, Air Products & Chemicals, Mack Trucks, Olympus Corporation USA and Pennsylvania Power & Light, among.
Allentown is so named after the Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, William Allen, an 18th century American aristocrat, who originally labeled the river town Northamptontown. But, it would always be called Allentown.
With its location on the Lehigh River, Allen hoped he could turn the hunting lodge into a commercial center. Unfortunately, low water levels of the river made trade impractical there. So, up to the time of the time of the American industrial revolution, Allentown remained a small village of Dutch and German farmers and tradesmen.
What made it a popular trading post, though, and brought about its major development, was that it had become the center of marketing for those area farmers.
Because of this, Allentown quickly found itself at the heart of the largest grain producing region in the country. By the 1830s and 1840s, America's industrial revolution, which was born in the Lehigh Valley, was taking off. The arrival of the Lehigh Canal, and later the railroad, opened up Allentown as a portal for efficiently bringing goods to market, and during the 1850s and 1860s, the area saw the rise of a strong local iron industry.
The nation's growing railroad network proliferated Allentown and by the end of the Civil War, a huge influx of immigrant workers created a mini-Pittsburgh along the river banks. With the collapse of the railroad boom in the 1870s, Allentown reemerged in the beginning of the 20th century as a town filled with silk mills, parlor furniture factories, and producers of beer and cigars. Most recently, the community has become one filled with service trades and tourism and is ready to host more commercial development by implementing state-of-the-art technological advancements including a fiber optic loop and uninterrupted electrical service in the downtown area to attract potential business clients.
Allentown is the largest of three area cities that compose an area of eastern Pennsylvania known as the Lehigh Valley. It is 60 miles north of Philadelphia and 90 miles west of New York City.
As of the 2000 census, the population was 106,632.
Allentown is the county seat for Lehigh County.
The median resident age is 34.5 years; the median household income is $32,016; and the median house value is approximately $85,000.