What to See in Allentown - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Da Vinci Science Center is a science museum and nonprofit organization in Allentown, Pennsylvania that has been a leader in "bringing science to life and lives to science", as its mission states, since 1992. Its slogan is Open for ExSCIting Possibilities.

The center excels in connecting people of all ages to the wonders of science in their lives, their creative curiosities, and tomorrow's innovative careers. Its engaging and highly-interactive experiences include a two-story exhibit floor; nearly three-dozen programs for visitors of all ages, students, educators, and community groups; and regional workforce initiatives that integrate limited-engagement exhibits with programs highlighting workforce development opportunities. The center's primary focus is introducing kids to the potential of the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The Da Vinci Science Center is located in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, approximately 65 miles north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 90 miles west of New York, New York. Its primary service area in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey is home to 4.9 million people.^[1]

Museum in the Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Haines Mill, also known as Haines Mill Museum, is a historic grist mill located at South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It was built about 1840, and is a four-story, stone building with a slate covered gambrel roof. It is three bay by three bay, 42 feet by 46 feet, 9 inches. The interior was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1908. A three-story brick addition was built in 1930, with a lean-to roof. Atop the main roof is a cupola. It remained in full operation until 1957. Today, Haines Mill is operated as a partnership between the County of Lehigh, which owns and maintains the site, and the Lehigh County Historical Society, which provides public tours.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.^[5]

Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Liberty Bell Museum is a non-profit organization and museum located in Zion's United Church of Christ in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The museum is based in the church in which the Liberty Bell, an iconic national symbol of American independence, was hidden from the British Army by American patriots during the American Revolutionary War in 1777.

The museum contains exhibits relating to the Liberty Bell and subjects including liberty, freedom, patriotism and local history. It also contains a full-size replica of the Liberty Bell, one of 55 replicas cast in France in 1950 for a U.S. Treasury savings bond promotion, which visitors are permitted to ring. Also on display is Allentown's Liberty Bell, which was cast in 1769 for Zion's Reformed Church and is believed to have been rung on July 8, 1776 to announce the public reading in Allentown of the Declaration of Independence.

Zion's Church, built in 1886 to replace the former church on the site, is one of 14 structures in Allentown listed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places; however, the federal law that created the registry provides no protection against actions taken by property owners. The shrine was founded in 1962 by Ralph H. Griesemer and Dr. Morgan D. Person.^[10]

Multi-purpose stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania. J. Birney Crum Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the second largest high school stadium in Pennsylvania with a capacity of 15,000. It is the home football field for each of Allentown's three high schools: William Allen High School, Louis E. Dieruff High School, and Allentown Central Catholic High School, each of which compete in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

The stadium opened in 1948 as Allentown High School Stadium. It was alternately referred to as Allentown School District Stadium and ASD Stadium until being renamed in 1982 in honor of J. Birney Crum, a football, basketball, and baseball coach at Allentown High School (present-day William Allen High School) who was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1974.

The stadium was, at one point, the largest high school football stadium in Pennsylvania. But with the removal of the visitor side stands during renovations in 2002, it lost that standing.

Crum is also the home high school playing field for numerous Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football players who went on to careers in the NFL, including Ed McCaffrey of the Denver Broncos and New York Giants, Andre Reed of the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, and Tony Stewart of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders. The stadium was renovated in 2002 and FieldTurf was installed to replace the original natural grass surface.

The stadium plays host to a large Fourth of July fireworks display that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators.

In addition, Crum is known as one of the most legendary performance venues in the marching arts. The stadium hosts the annual Drum Corps International Eastern Classic. Formerly the DCI East Championships, this event hosts all of DCI's World Class Drum and Bugle Corps the weekend before DCI World Championships in Indianapolis. The stadium plays host to the Collegiate Marching Band Festival, held in late September/early October each year, which showcases college and university marching bands of all sizes and styles from across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Crum also is the site of the USBands A Class National Championships, featuring performances of high school marching bands each November.^[11]

Concrete bridge in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Albertus L. Meyers Bridge is a reinforced concrete open-spandrel arch bridge located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The bridge is "one of the earliest surviving examples of monumental, reinforced concrete construction," according to the Historic American Engineering Record.

When opened for traffic on November 17, 1913, the Albertus L. Meyers Bridge, then known as the Eighth Street Bridge, was the longest and highest concrete bridge in the world.

The bridge spans the Little Lehigh Creek, linking center city Allentown with the city's South Side. The bridge has seventeen spans and is longer than the more massive Tunkhannock Viaduct of the same type.^[15]

Theatre. The Nineteenth Street Theater building is the oldest cinema in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Opening on September 17, 1928, it hosts live theater, educational programs, and screens art house films.

In July 1957 the property was purchased by Allentown's Civic Little Theatre. Since then, stage productions have been performed at the theater. In 1994 the company officially changed its name to the Civic Theatre of Allentown.

The Nineteenth Street Theater produces a live theatre season including four mainstage productions. It also produces children's theatre productions and special events. The theater's film arm primarily shows a variety of independent and international films, generally at lower prices than first run cinemas, with about 60 to 80 movie titles a year. The Theater School enrolls more than 350 students a year in Fall, Winter and Summer sessions. The theater's annual operating budget is roughly $1 million per year.^[17]

Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. High German Evangelical Reformed Church, also known as Zion Reformed and Zion United Church of Christ, is a historic Evangelical and Reformed church at 622 West Hamilton Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

A log structure was built on the site in 1762. A simple brick church said to be in the vernacular federal style was built a few yards north of the log church in 1773.

In 1777, while the British occupied Philadelphia, this church was used to hide the Liberty Bell as well as the chimes from Philadelphia's Christ Church. This clandestine act of patriotism prevented the British from melting down these treasures for use as ammunition.

In 1838, the church was enlarged and may have incorporated the 1762 structure into the building inside the walls of the current boiler room. The building was doubled in size from 1886 to 1888 in gothic revival style by architect Lewis Jacoby.

In 1983, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Liberty Bell Museum, commemorating the location of the Liberty Bell's hiding in 1777, is located inside the church.^[19]