HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial AmericaAmerican Revolution

Allentown

Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Founded 1762 by the noted colonial leader and the jurist, William Allen. Known until 1834 as Northampton. Here the Liberty Bell was hidden in 1777, and Revolutionary wounded hospitalized. City incorporation, 1867. Long a textile and cement center.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

Allentown was laid out in 1762 by William Allen, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and chief justice of colonial Pennsylvania, and was known as Northampton until 1834. Its most storied moment came in 1777, when patriots spirited the Liberty Bell out of Philadelphia ahead of the advancing British and hid it here, while the town also sheltered wounded Continental soldiers. Incorporated as a city in 1867, Allentown went on to thrive as a center of textiles and cement.

Why it matters

Allentown safeguarded one of the nation's great symbols during the Revolution and grew into an industrial city emblematic of eastern Pennsylvania's rise.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • Β· William Allen

Related events

  • Β· Hiding of the Liberty Bell, 1777

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Allentown

Whitehall, PA Β· est. 1947

Laid out in 1762 by the powerful colonial jurist William Allen, this Lehigh Valley town spent its first seventy years known as Northampton before taking its founder's name. In the anxious autumn of 1777, as the British occupied Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell was spirited here for safekeeping and Revolutionary wounded were nursed in the town. It grew through the 19th century into a humming center of textiles and cement, earning its city charter in 1867.

Allentown

South Whitehall Township, PA Β· est. 1947

William Allen, a leading colonial jurist, established this settlement in 1762; it answered to the name Northampton until 1834. In 1777 it sheltered the Liberty Bell from advancing British forces and hosted Revolutionary wounded. Incorporated as a city in 1867, it flourished as a center of textiles and cement manufacture.

Allentown

South Whitehall Township, PA Β· est. 1947

Founded in 1762 by the colonial leader and jurist William Allen, this town went by the name Northampton until 1834. During the Revolution its distance from the Delaware made it a safe haven β€” the Liberty Bell was hidden here in 1777 and wounded Continental soldiers were treated nearby. Chartered as a city in 1867, it became a long-lived hub of textile mills and cement works.

Brethren's House

Bethlehem, PA Β· est. 1964

The Moravians who founded Bethlehem built this stone house in 1748 to lodge their unmarried men, and it quickly became a hive of colonial-era craft β€” a bell foundry, silkworm raising, and other trades that made the community largely self-sufficient. During the Revolution it sheltered wounded Continental soldiers as a military hospital, and after 1815 it opened as a girls' school before becoming part of Moravian College and a museum.