First Cement

First Cement is a Pennsylvania historical marker in Coplay, Lehigh County, dedicated 1947.

Coplay Rd., between Coplay Cement office bldg. and Saylor Park Dr., Coplay

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

David O. Saylor was the first to make portland cement in the United States, at Coplay in 1871. First use of the rotary kiln to manufacture cement on a commercial scale also was here Nov. 8, 1889.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1865 · Johnson's New Jersey (1865) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1871 · Plate F. East Central Pennsylvania. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1876 · Outline Map of Lehigh County. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1878 · Pennsylvania. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1894 · Allentown, Pennsylvania (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Plate F. East Central Pennsylvania, 1871, covering the location of First Cement, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Plate F. East Central Pennsylvania, 1871, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission via data.pa.gov

First Cement

Historical maps covering this location

More markers nearby