Slatington Historic District

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Slatington Historic District is a historic district in Slatington, Lehigh County, listed in the National Register in 2004. It covers about 165 acres, with buildings dating from 1807 to 1980 in styles from vernacular to Greek Revival, Queen Anne and Tudor Revival.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local significance in industry and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1807 to 1953, reflecting construction documented in 1807 and the discovery of slate in 1844.

Physical character

Walls are wood, stone, brick and parged masonry on stone, brick and concrete-block foundations, under roofs of slate, asphalt or gambrel-shaped asphalt. Many buildings show center gables, dormers, three-gable facades or Mansard roofs, with some prism-glass transoms and historic slate sidewalks. A stone barn lost its western portion in 1894, and the nomination names O. S. Hoch as a builder and J. H. Steger as an engineer.

Historical context

Nicholas Kem built the area's first house in 1741, slate was discovered locally in 1844, and the first slate operation began in 1845. A post office opened in 1851, a covered bridge crossed the Lehigh River in 1854, and the borough of Slatington was incorporated in 1864. Washington Quarry opened in 1885 and the Slatington Rolling Mill in 1890, part of an industrial base with the Lehigh Slate Company, Bachman Brothers and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.