The culture of Allentown, Pennsylvania dates back to the early 18th century settlement of the city and the surrounding Lehigh Valley, which was then part of the Province of Pennsylvania, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, by German immigrants almost exclusively affiliated the Lutheran, Moravian, and Reformed faiths, three of the most prominent Protestant denominations.
Prior to the arrival of German immigrants, Allentown and the region was inhabited by the Lenape Native American tribe, which spoke the Unami language.[1]
The German immigrants who settled present-day Allentown and the surrounding Lehigh Valley were mostly fleeing religious persecution and war at the time in Germany and were drawn to Allentown and its surrounding communities by the region's reputation for religious freedom and fertile farming land. Later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the city and region's reputation as a central manufacturing location during the American Industrial Revolution attracted a second wave of German and other European immigrants who sought economic opportunity and jobs afforded by its anthracite coal, iron ore, steel, railroad, and other manufacturing and mining industries.
- ^ "Transformation of people and places," Delaware & Lehigh National Corridor