Biery's Port
Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
First structure, a grist mill, was built about 1752. Starting 1801, Frederick Biery developed the area commercially; erected several landmark stone buildings. This is the oldest part of Catasauqua (incorporated 1853) which was an early home to the anthracite iron industry.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
The story of Catasauqua begins here, where a grist mill first turned around 1752. Starting in 1801, Frederick Biery developed the area into a commercial hub and raised several enduring stone buildings. This oldest corner of the town, incorporated in 1853, became an early cradle of the anthracite iron industry that would help forge industrial Pennsylvania.
Why it matters
Biery's Port marks the roots of anthracite iron-making, a technology that powered America's industrial rise in the nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · Frederick Biery
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dery Silk Mill
Catasauqua, PA · est. 1998
Beginning in 1897, D. George Dery built his first Pennsylvania silk mill here in Catasauqua and rapidly expanded across the state. By 1914 his operation spanned fifteen mills and employed thousands, making him one of the world's largest silk manufacturers during the industry's Pennsylvania heyday. The empire proved fragile, and operations ceased in 1923.
George Taylor (1716-1781)
Catasauqua, PA · est. 1947
George Taylor, an Irish-born ironmaster who rose from indentured labor to prosperity, made his home in this handsome 1768 house along the Lehigh. Elected to Pennsylvania's provincial Assembly in 1764, he stood against royal government and was sent to the Continental Congress in July 1776, where he added his name to the Declaration of Independence. His restored home is today a National Historic Landmark.
Davies and Thomas Company
Catasauqua, PA · est. 2023
Founded in the iron-rich Lehigh Valley in 1865, the Davies and Thomas Company mastered a demanding new craft: casting the heavy iron plates that line tunnels bored beneath rivers and cities. Its segments went into landmark works of American infrastructure—the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and railroad bores—as well as projects overseas. A sample of its tunnel lining was proudly displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Crane Iron Works
Catasauqua, PA · est. 1997
On the Fourth of July, 1840, Welsh ironmaster David Thomas fired up a furnace in Catasauqua that finally proved anthracite coal could smelt iron on a commercial scale. Earlier attempts had failed, but Thomas's hot-blast furnace for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company soon turned out 50 to 60 tons of pig iron a week, and the works grew to six furnaces before closing in 1930. The success helped shift American iron production away from charcoal and toward the hard coal of Pennsylvania's mountains.