HISTORY

Northampton is a community in Northamtpon County in eastern Pennsylvania with a population of 8717 in 1990. Northampton was formed in 1909 when the borough of Alliance was renamed (Alliance was formed in 1902 by the merger of Stemton, Newport and Siegfried). The Northampton area (home to Hungarian, Ukrainian, Austrian, German, Polish, Slovak and Pennsylvania Dutch peoples) was originally settled by Mennonites on what is now West Twenty-First Street. The settlement's founder, John Siegfried, operated a tavern, store and ferry on the banks of the Lehigh River. see map

The Northampton area is rich in limestone and is the hub of the Cement Belt. The (former) Atlas Cement Plant (founded in 1895 by Jose Navarro) provided all the cement for the Panama Canal from 1908 to 1914. This cement was bagged in a building on Laubach Avenue that nows serves as the Northampton Area Community Center.

Wilson Block House

The Wilson Block House was built in 1756 by Hugh Wilson (near his grist mill) to provide protection from Indian attacks - the structure was moved to the Municipal Park Complex and dedicated in 1985. Wilson appears to be the first to settle the area when he bought 400 acres from William Allen (Chief Justice of Pennsylvania) in August of 1739. Wilson combined this with nearly 730 acres he already owned northwest of what is now Howertown and built his home and grist mill sometime after 1740.

Siegfried Railroad Station

The Seigfried Railroad Station was leased from the Conrail Railroad Company beginning in September of 1975. Since that time the Borough has made many improvements to the property such as replacing much of the flooring, removal of an unsightly outbuilding, structural enforcement, paving and landscaping. Today the building houses the Northampton Area Historical Society and has become a showcase, open to the public, especially during the Street Fair celebration and during the Christmas holiday season.

The Lyric/Roxy Theatre

The Lyric Movie theater opened on Main Street in 1921 and re-opened in 1933 as the ROXY. The theater maintains its original marquee and art-deco style. The Roxy, as well as main street in general, was featured in a major motion picture, "School Ties" a few years back. The Roxy is still in service as a low cost movie theater that is popular throughout the L.V and has expanded its traditional fare to include live theater and concerts.

The Atlas consisted of four plants bordering either side of the Hokendauqua Creek in Northampton and would attract the skills of thousands of men and women from various central Europe countries. These hard working individuals needed a good job in the famous "cement belt" of the United States and many of them would spend their entire working career at the Atlas. Northampton became a multi-cultural community that still bears the work ethic in the younger generations of today.

The Atlas was very self-sufficient, owning farms, a telephone system, power plant, print shop and a bag factory. In 1931 the United States Steel Corporation purchased the Atlas and began constructing the fifth and final plant to the west of the Hokendauqua in 1941. This plant used a new "wet" process to produce cement. The plant was visited by engineers from many foreign countries and the Atlas became famous for having one of the finest safety records year after year.

But competition from neighboring cement plants and rising costs for new technologies brought the aging mighty Atlas to a halt on August 24,1982, a sad day, indeed, for the few hundred Atlas workers who remained to the very end. The Atlas left a great legacy to Northampton. It named our community, donated land for our park, school system, and community center, created thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly, and provided many other services to the borough.

Though the Atlas closed its doors, it opened other doors that would lead to an inevitable transformation to new industry on the site. When businessman and land developer Frank Horwith completed the purchase of 700 acres in 1985, he had a quiet dream of bringing the Atlas back to life. That quiet dream was recently fulfilled when U.S. Generating Company of Bethesda, Maryland, built the Northampton Generating Plant, a modern cogeneration facility that produces clean electricity and steam.

The Atlas museum was made possible through a generous grant from U.S. Generating Company. The museum links the wonderful Atlas memories to the new industry that has taken up residence on this legendary site. Indeed, families still remember when cement was "king." The Atlas museum lists the names of thousands of former employees on the wall of honor. Exhibits of photographs, artifacts and a giant mural attempt to preserve the heritage and lore of the Atlas for future generations.

Yes, there is new industry on the Atlas today. But the memories shall not fade in the wind as the cement dust had. And through the eyes of some of the young workers now employed by the Northampton Generating Plant, you can sense the same devotion and work ethic to their craft that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers possessed when they roamed the same terrain a hundred years ago.

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