The Whitehall Parkway is a 110-acre park situated near the center of Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. [1] The parkway serves as a preserved green space in the center of the Township after the Township government acquired the property in 1990 and sought to preserve a mix of Whitehall's history, spanning from early settlers to recent cement and mining companies centered on the Coplay Creek, a tributary of the area's Lehigh River. [2]
The earliest recorded inhabitants of the land around the area now preserved by the Whitehall Parkway were the Lenni Lennape, a tribal nation native to the region. The Minsi, a subtribe of the Lenni Lenape had settled along the Lehigh river and were using the land for hunting and fishing when European settlers began to arrive to the Parkway area in the late 1600s and early 1700s. [3]
After William Penn, Pennsylvania's namesake, received a deed from then King Charles II of England indicating his rights to the Province of Pennsylvania, he instead sought to acquire land fairly from the local tribes, purchasing tracts of land over time from the tribes. However, following his death, his son Thomas insisted that his father had received a deed from Lenni Lenape chiefs granting as much land as a man could walk in 1.5 days. This deed was never seen in a signed form and remains controversial today. However, the walk commenced, and became known as the Walking Purchase, commencing on September 19, 1737, and resulting in the acquisition of land that is now part of Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, and Northampton counties. [3]
One week later, on September 26, 1737, Johan Georg Kern and Georg Friedrich Newhardt, two immigrants from the Palatinate regions of Southwestern Germany arrived to the area and acquired a deed to 406 acres of land on February 1, 1743, which the pair split evenly on November 30, 1744. [4] This land included the area now known as the Whitehall Parkway. Newhardt soon sold his land to Adam Deshler, who erected the historic Fort Deshler on the site in 1760. Local lore maintains that the Fort was staffed by soldiers who protected local citizen fleeing from an attack by the local Lenape tribes, [3] though there is no immediate evidence indicating that the fort was staffed with military but may have been a place where the locals took refuge from the attacks. Kern later passed the land to his son, before it was sold to the cement companies that developed the land in that area. [4]
As of 2005, the Parkway was described in Township documents as located along "Church and Chestnut Streets," containing "an abandoned quarry, wetlands, floodplain, and the ruins of a late 19th -early 20th-century cement plant." [5]
The official Township website currently notes that site is connected to the local Ironton Rail-Trail, referencing a former stretch of train tracks converted to recreational trails, and that it hosts an annual Civil War reenactment each June. [1] Local media also notes that just off South Church Street, on the parkway's western edge, sits what is possible the second oldest caboose in existence belonging to the former Reading Railroad company. [2]
Armstrong County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,558. The county seat is Kittanning. The county was organized on March 12, 1800, from parts of Allegheny, Westmoreland and Lycoming Counties. It was named in honor of John Armstrong, who represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress and served as a major general during the Revolutionary War.
Lehigh County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 374,557. Its county seat is Allentown, the state's third-largest city after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Hokendauqua is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population of Hokendauqua was 3,340 as of the 2020 census. Hokendauqua is a suburb of Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census.
Lower Macungie Township is a township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The township's population was 31,964 as of the 2020 census, making it the second-largest population center in Lehigh County after Allentown and the third-largest population center in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area after Allentown and Bethlehem.
South Whitehall Township is a township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The township's population was 19,180 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of Allentown and is part of 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.
Whitehall Township is a township with home rule status in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The township's population was 26,738 as of the 2010 census.
The Lenape, also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada.
Lenapehoking is widely translated as 'homelands of the Lenape', which in the 16th and 17th centuries, ranged along the Eastern seaboard from western Connecticut to Delaware, and encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, and the territory between them.
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from "Penn's Woods", referring to William's father Admiral Sir William Penn.
The Walking Purchase, also known as the Walking Treaty, was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians. In the purchase, the Penn family and proprietors claimed that a 1686 treaty with the Lenape ceded an area of 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km2) in present-day Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, which included a western land boundary extending as far west as a man could walk in a day and a half, which led to its name.
Lappawinsoe was a Lenape chief. His name signifies "gathering fruit" or "going away to gather food". Lappawinsoe sold the land of his tribe to Thomas Penn (1702-1775), and John Penn (1700-1746), the sons of William Penn (1644-1718), the founder, with moderate Quaker philosophies of the Colony and Province of Pennsylvania in 1681, through the controversial and disputed Walking Purchase treaty agreement of 1737. Three other Lenape-Delaware chiefs also signed the agreement: Tishecunk, Nutimus and Menakihikon. Documentation shows that Nutimus was considered the principal Indian leader of the tribes located further southeast in the future State of Delaware.
The Conrad Weiser Homestead was the home of Johann Conrad Weiser, who enlisted the Iroquois on the British side in the French and Indian War. The home is located near Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania in the United States. A designated National Historic Landmark, it is currently administered as a historic house museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The historic site was established in 1923 to preserve an example of a colonial homestead and to honor Weiser, an important figure in the settlement of the colonial frontier.
Conrad Weiser, born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a Pennsylvania Dutch (German) pioneer who served as an interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native American nations. Primarily a farmer, he also worked as a tanner, and later served as a soldier and judge. He lived part of the time for six years at Ephrata Cloister, a Protestant monastic community in Lancaster County.
Lehigh County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1904, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting the history of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The Historical Society and Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum are located at 432 West Walnut Street in Allentown.
The Museum of Indian Culture is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and educational center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Egypt is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population of Egypt was 2,588 as of the 2020 census.
Fort Deshler, located near Egypt, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, USA, was a French and Indian War era frontier fort established in 1760 to protect settlers from Indian attacks. The fort was near the location of what is now the intersection of Pennsylvania Route 145 and Chestnut Street, between Egypt and Coplay.
Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.
Zionsville is a village mostly in Upper Milford Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania with parts of the village located in Lower Milford Township. The West Branch Hosensack Creek forms its natural southeastern boundary and drains it via the Hosensack Creek to the Perkiomen Creek.
Powder Valley is a village in southern Upper Milford Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Powder Valley 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.