Allentown is a city of 118,000 located in east-central Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Together with neighboring Bethlehem and Easton, the region makes up PA's third largest metro area behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Scranton and Erie were historically larger than Allentown, but Allentown now holds the #3 spot.
I've blown past Allentown on I-78 a dozen times or so over the last ten years, but had never gotten off the highway and into the city. True to the industrial nature of the Lehigh Valley, it is a hard-nosed blue collar town. I was very impressed with how dense and urban the residential areas of the city are. Block after block of solid row houses continue far past downtown and almost to the city limits.
This thread covers the the general area around Hamilton Street, the city's main drag, and some of the residential areas immediately to the north. There is a whole lot more to cover, not to mention the other cities of the Lehigh Valley that I have also yet to visit.
Nice pictures! I have never gotten up there myself either, despite driving past it on the Northeast Extension several times in the past few years. Allentown has some pretty nice buildings downtown, although I always wondered why there weren't more highrises. Maybe it's because Allentown is more blue-collar than white-collar, but then again Allentown was never as blue-collar as places like Bethlehem.
Allentown appears to have an impressive collection of great buildings & streetscapes. Great photographs, thanks for showing us. I have never been to Allentown and pleased to see pictures of it.
Great pictures! Thank you for the timing too by the way... DCI's Eastern Classic was just held in Allentown this very weekend (for those of us out there that actually know what that is lol).
Nice shots! I similarly had driven past Allentown a million times before one day stopping to take a look, and then being a little amazed by the place. So much density and grit.
oh Allentown. I never thought Id see the day this city would make in on ssp. Love the shots. I feel like I have many of the same stored on my hard drive especially the ones from the parking deck. Thanks for this one.
Thanks folks! I'll need to do the residential areas and industry in this town more in-depth some day.
And check out the West End sometime. It's truly beautiful. Allentown is actually a pretty diverse place. I moved there in 1971 from Albany (left in 1978 after graduating from William Allen HS). Downtown Allentown was an amazingly vibrant, crowded place. That new-ish PP&L complex at 9th & Hamilton, which I'm sure you noticed, used to be the site of the impressive Hess's Department Store, a real old-school gem. Further down Hamilton, east of 7th Street was Leh's Department Store, another old-school gem, though less upscale than Hess's. When I drive down Hamilton Street these days, I wonder how things can change so much.
I am so happy to finally see a great photo thread on Allentown. I have been there several times and it packs an urban punch and it is diverse. There is a lot of NYC and Philly influence on Allentown. A lot of people have moved there since the cost of living is much lower. Some commute to Philly and NYC/Jersey from Allentown in pretty suprising numbers. The metro area itself is pretty large too so it has that draw and its growing pretty quickly.
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