Seniors Enjoy a Visit to Allentown

Allentown was originally named Northampton town by its founder, Chief Justice of Colonial Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, William Allen. Senior visitors learn that Allen, also a former Mayor of Philadelphia and successful businessman, drew up plans for the rural village in 1762.

Despite its formal name, from the beginning, nearly everyone called it “Allen’s town”. In 1838, the city officially adopted the name Allentown.

Trout Hall, built in 1770 by James Allen, William Allen’s son, is the oldest house in Allentown. From 1867 to 1905, it served as the home of Muhlenberg College. Allentown, on the Lehigh River, is the largest of the three Pennsylvania cities that make up the Lehigh Valley .

Seniors Visit Historical City

Allentown is probably most well known as the subject of the eponymous Billy Joel song. The long history of Allentown has left it with an impressive architectural heritage. The Allentown Art Museum, which contains a reconstructed room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, offers exhibits, tours, galleries, lectures, workshops, and family activities.

The Liberty Bell Museum located in historic Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Mack Trucks Historical Museum as well as the America On Wheels Museum attract senior visitors who enjoy trucks and all modes of wheeled transportation.

The city is also home to the Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom amusement park. Visitors will discover a host of other things to see and do in Allentown starting off with the famed state-of-the-art Coca-Cola Park.

Allentown is full of history with beautiful parks and great events. The West End Theatre District is an area that interests senior visitors with its fine dining restaurants.

Arts Festival, One of the Largest

Mayfair, a five-day multicultural arts festival held each May, and the Lehigh Valley Blues Festival both attract a large following. The Allentown Civic Theatre is the Lehigh Valley’s home for Broadway-styled stage shows and where the annual production of A Christmas Carol is now a Lehigh Valley holiday tradition.

Lincoln Financial Field is home to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Phillies play at the brand-new, 43,000-seat Citizens Bank Park. The Wachovia Center hosts the home games of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and the NBA’s 76ers, so its sports galore in and around Allentown.

Blue Marsh Lake offers good hiking trails, boating and fishing in the summer, and ice fishing, ice skating and sledding in the winter.

Miller Symphony Hall is the premier performing arts facility in Allentown. Senior visitors can’t help but notice the Albertus Meyers Bridge, commonly called the 8th Street Bridge at the time it was built, and said to be the largest concrete bridge in the world.

There seems to me to be something awaiting for just about everyone who visits Allentown.  -jeb