Biery's Port Historic District | |
Dery Silk Mill in the Biercy Port Historic District of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, in October 2012 | |
Location | Roughly bounded by Pineapple, Front, Race, and Mulberry Streets, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 40°38′57″N75°28′04″W / 40.64917°N 75.46778°W |
Area | 21 acres (8.5 ha) |
Architectural style | Late Victorian |
NRHP reference No. | 84003457 [1] |
Added to NRHP | August 9, 1984 |
Biery's Port Historic District is a national historic district located in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 [1] and includes 90 contributing buildings in the Biery's Port section of Catasauqua.
The district includes mainly mid- to late-19th century dwellings, and some 2 1/2-story stone dwellings built in the early 19th century by Frederick Biery. Notable non-residential buildings include the Americana Hotel (1852) and Dery Silk Mill. [2]
Biery’s Port is the oldest section of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, which was initially settled in 1805.
In 1839, Catasauqua was the first community in the United States to launch anthracite iron manufacturing operations. The site of several of Catasauqua's first commercial and residential buildings, Biery's Port became "the commercial heart of a thriving town," according to historians at the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor." [3]
According to Lehigh Valley historian William H. Glace, David Thomas, a native of Glamorgan, Wales, who became an iron worker at age 17 and then supervisor of the blast furnaces at the Yniscedwyn Iron Works in the Swansea Valley, was recruited by Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to erect "a furnace and run it successfully for three months by the exclusive use of anthracite coal for fuel." Lehigh Coal then "selected Biery's Port along the Canal, three miles above Allentown (later named Catasauqua) as the location for their great undertaking."
Thomas emigrated from South Wales in 1839, and subsequently rented a home in Allentown with his family after arriving on July 9, 1839, "until the two-story frame dwelling at Biery's Port was completed for them by the Crane Iron Co.," successfully completed his initial assignment for Lehigh Coal, leading to the formation of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, which later became known simply as the Crane Iron Company, and making him a wealthy man and local philanthropist.
According to Glace, Thomas "took much interest in the political, financial, religious and charitable affairs of the town, and therefore he came to be commonly recognized as its founder," and was also "particularly concerned in the establishment and success of the First Presbyterian Church of Catasauqua, and encouraged temperance and thrift amongst the numerous workingmen under him." [4]
Catasauqua, referred to colloquially as Catty, is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. Catasauqua's population was 6,518 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census.
George Taylor was an American ironmaster and politician who was a Founding Father of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Pennsylvania. His former home, the George Taylor House in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a 107-mile (172 km) common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jersey to New York Harbor and New York City through its eastern terminals in Newark and on the Hudson River in Jersey City. The canal was sometimes called the Morris and Essex Canal, in error, due to confusion with the nearby and unrelated Morris and Essex Railroad.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere.
David Thomas was a native of Wales who was influential in the birth of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
Anthracite iron or anthracite pig iron is iron extracted by the smelting together of anthracite coal and iron ore, that is using anthracite coal instead of charcoal in iron smelting. This was an important technical advance in the late-1830s, enabling a great acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and in Europe.
This is a list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania. As of 2015, there are over 3,000 listed sites in Pennsylvania. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania have listings on the National Register.
The Lehigh Crane Iron Company, later renamed Crane Iron Company, was a major ironmaking firm in the Lehigh Valley from its founding in 1839 until its sale in 1899. It was based in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, and was founded by Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, who financed its development through their Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, which promoted the then-novel technique of smelting iron ore with anthracite coal. This was an important cost and energy savings technique, credited with eliminating the need for either expensive charcoal or coke producing processes and transport costs that proved central to the acceleration of the American industrial revolution.
The Thomas Iron Company was a major iron-making firm in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania from its founding in 1854 until its decline and eventual dismantling in the early 20th century.
The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad was built in the 1850s to transport iron ore from local mines in Lehigh and later Berks County to furnaces along the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. Originally owned by two iron companies, the railroad later became part of the Reading Company, and parts of it remain in operation today.
The Lehigh Canal is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of 20 years beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton and present-day Jim Thorpe. In Easton, the canal met the Pennylvania Canal's Delaware Division and Morris Canals, which allowed anthracite coal and other goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.
Lock Ridge Park is a park built around a historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
The Delaware & Lehigh Canal National and State Heritage Corridor (D&L) is a 165-mile (266 km) National Heritage Area in eastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It stretches from north to south, across five counties and over one hundred municipalities. It follows the historic routes of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Lehigh Navigation, Lehigh Canal, and the Delaware Canal, from Bristol northeast of Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the state.
The George Taylor House, also known as George Taylor Mansion, was the home of Founding Father George Taylor, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The home was built by Taylor in 1768 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LCAN) (1988–2010) was a modern-day anthracite coal mining company headquartered in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. It acquired many properties and relaunched the Lehigh Coal Companies brand in 1988. The LCAN ran strip mining operations in the Panther Creek Valley east of Lansford, Pennsylvania along U.S. Route 209 with vast properties dominating the coal areas of Tamaqua, Coaldale, and Lansford.
The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.
West Catasauqua is an unincorporated village in Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Once a port and station along the busy Lehigh Canal, it is colloquially known as West Catty. It is part of the Lehigh Valley, which has a population of 861,899 and is the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census.
Josiah White (1781–1850) was a Pennsylvania industrialist and key figure in the American Industrial Revolution.
Catasauqua Creek is an ENE–SSW oriented creek draining 6.6 miles (10.6 km) from springs of the Blue Mountain barrier ridge several miles below the Lehigh Gap in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians located upriver and opposite from Allentown in Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
The Catasauqua Branch was a short railway line in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the state of Pennsylvania. It was part of the Lehigh and New England Railroad and ran from a point south of Bath to Catasauqua, where it interchanged with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad. The line opened in 1914 and was partially abandoned in 1961 on the Lehigh and New England Railroad's bankruptcy and closure. Conrail abandoned the remainder in the 1990s.