In 1900, Catasauqua was one of the wealthiest communities in America. Its electric-lighted streets were lined with businesses, stores, row houses, and ornate mansions. But when iron making ended in 1920, the "Iron Borough's" golden age soon began to fade. Compared to its booming industrial atmosphere in the 19th century, life in Catasauqua and North Catasauqua during the 20th century became quintessentially small town. Though Fuller Company and Phoenix Forge were nationally known in their own industries and the silk mills still wove luxury fabric for New York designers, many people moved...

When the first German, Huguenot, and Scotch-Irish settlers arrived in what is now Whitehall Township nearly three hundred years ago, their lives were fraught with peril. Some of the first families were nearly wiped out in raids during the French and Indian War. After the United States was established, the township settled into a long tranquil farming period, which lasted until the arrival of iron and the iron horse in the 1850s. Then, the Lehigh Valley became the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Communities such as Egypt, Hokendauqua, Coplay, and Fullerton sprang up around iron mills,...

America's portland cement industry began in the Lehigh Valley. The rich deposit of limestone known as the Jacksonburg Formation arcs through the valley from Berks County, Pennsylvania, to Warren County, New Jersey, and today it still provides the raw material for the Lehigh district's famous high-quality portland cement. Cement from the Lehigh Valley built America's skyscrapers, dams, and highways. The Lehigh Valley Cement Industry documents not only the quarries and cement mills but also the dozens of companies that sprang up to supply and support the industry. The photographs also tell the...