Allentown details hiding in plain view nearby
In Allentown, the ordinary often masks a deeper story. A familiar building hides a chapter, a name carries echoes from the past, and a quiet corner links to a larger thread.
This isn't a guidebook rundown. These pieces are woven into daily life, so familiar that they fade into the background. People stop noticing them, leaving the details buried until uncovered.
Pip the Mouse puppet show
In 1962, Hess's department store introduced "The Mouse Before Christmas," a holiday puppet show starring a character called Pip the Mouse.
The short production played in a display window downtown, drawing crowds of families during the Christmas season.
After Hess's closed in the 1990s, volunteers rescued the sets and puppets.
They relocated the show to the Liberty Bell Museum, where Pip entertained audiences each December for nearly three decades.
The story followed Pip's clumsy efforts to help Santa, a simple format that became a holiday tradition for generations.
Even after the museum's closure in 2023, Pip remains a local icon.
The Liberty Bell is hidden under a church
In September 1777, Philadelphia leaders feared that British troops would seize the Liberty Bell and other city bells to melt them into cannon.
The bells were loaded onto wagons, hauled 60 miles north, and hidden in Northampton Towne, today called Allentown.
Workers buried the Liberty Bell beneath the floorboards of Zion's Reformed Church, where it stayed until the British left Philadelphia in 1778.
The exact spot later became part of the Liberty Bell Museum, which displayed the hiding place and holiday exhibits for decades.
When the church property was sold in 2023, the museum closed, though the historic space remains intact.
The Allentown Band since 1828
The Allentown Band traces its first performance to July 4, 1828, and has performed continuously since that date.
The group calls itself the oldest civilian concert band in the United States and has played for presidents, parades, and national celebrations.
Since the early 1900s, its summer home has been West Park, where a limestone bandshell designed by Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer was built specifically for outdoor concerts.
Performances remain free, drawing several thousand listeners on warm evenings.
The band continues to rehearse weekly and release recordings, carrying on a tradition that has lasted nearly two centuries without interruption.
Hess's department store
For decades, Hess's department store drew shoppers and celebrities alike to Hamilton Street in downtown Allentown.
Founded in 1897, the flagship grew into a multi-story destination with fashion shows, elaborate holiday displays, and personal appearances by national figures.
Barbara Walters, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Johnny Carson were among the names who promoted products there.
The store became famous for its extravagant promotions and high-end merchandise. By the 1990s, the chain collapsed, and the downtown flagship closed in 1996.
The building was demolished in 2000, replaced by the Plaza at PPL Center, though Hess's remains part of Allentown's retail memory.
The PPL Building holiday lights
The PPL Building, completed in 1928, stands 24 stories tall and was designed by Corbett & Harrison, the same architectural team that later contributed to Rockefeller Center.
The tower has long dominated the Allentown skyline, but its most memorable feature appears during the holiday season.
Starting in the 1930s, the building's office windows were illuminated in patterns that formed two large images: a Christmas tree on one face and a candle on the other.
Families could see the glowing symbols from miles away. The tradition continued with only a pause in the 1970s - 1980s and remains an annual feature today.
Billy Joel's "Allentown"
Billy Joel released the single "Allentown" in late 1982 as part of his album The Nylon Curtain. The song spent six straight weeks at No.
17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Its lyrics describe factory workers, layoffs, and the struggles of industrial decline, themes that resonated across the United States.
The accompanying music video included imagery of steel mills and manufacturing plants from the region. Joel later performed the song at Stabler Arena near Allentown.
Although some debate whether it refers more to Bethlehem's steel industry than Allentown itself, the song placed the city's name into national awareness during the 1980s.
Yocco's Hot Dogs
Yocco's began in 1922 when Theodore Iacocca opened the Liberty Grille on Liberty Street in Allentown.
Locals started calling the shop "Yocco's" after the Pennsylvania Dutch pronunciation of the family's name, and the nickname stuck.
The restaurant became known for its hot dogs cooked "well done" and topped with chili sauce, onion, and mustard when ordered "everything." The founder's nephew was Lee Iacocca, who later became Chrysler's CEO, but the family kept the hot dog business local.
Over the years, Yocco's expanded to multiple locations across the Lehigh Valley and remains a regional brand with a century-long history.
A Rembrandt uncovered in 2020
The Allentown Art Museum owns a painting titled Portrait of a Young Woman, dated 1632.
For decades, experts believed it came from Rembrandt's workshop but not from the master himself.
In 2020, conservators cleaned away darkened varnish and overpainting, revealing details of brushwork that matched Rembrandt's known style.
Specialists reviewed the restored canvas and reattributed it to Rembrandt.
The shift in attribution gave the museum one of the few authentic Rembrandt works in a small American city collection.
The painting now hangs with a new interpretation, showing how conservation work can alter centuries of art history with a single discovery.
Trout Hall
Trout Hall, a Georgian-style stone house built in 1770 by James Allen, is the oldest standing home in Allentown.
Allen, the son of city founder William Allen, constructed it as a summer residence.
The house later served as a school before being acquired by the Lehigh County Historical Society in the early 20th century.
Restoration efforts returned the interior to a colonial appearance with period furnishings.
Today, the site operates seasonally as a historic house museum, offering tours that highlight the Allen family's role in the area.
Its steep dormers and simple roofline make it stand out among nearby modern buildings.
Allentown State Hospital in a film
Allentown State Hospital opened in 1912 as a psychiatric institution with a sprawling campus and large brick buildings.
By the early 21st century, the hospital had closed, leaving the property vacant.
In 2017-2018, director M. Night Shyamalan used the empty complex to film scenes for his movie "Glass," which required long institutional corridors and abandoned wards.
Demolition of the hospital began in 2020 and continued into 2021, clearing most of the historic structures. Its brief Hollywood appearance remains part of its legacy.
The Great Allentown Fair
The Great Allentown Fair was first held in 1852 as an agricultural exhibition for Lehigh County farmers.
It grew over the decades into an annual event combining farm competitions, livestock barns, carnival rides, and major concerts.
The fairgrounds themselves carry history: during World War I, the U.S. Army used the site as Camp Crane to train ambulance units.
A half-mile harness racing track also operated there for many years.
Today, the fair remains managed by the Lehigh County Agricultural Society and still fills the fairgrounds each summer.
Its mix of rides, food stands, and shows attracts visitors from across the region.
America On Wheels Museum
America On Wheels opened in 2008 on North Front Street in Allentown as a museum dedicated to transportation history.
The 43,000-square-foot facility contains three main galleries with rotating exhibits that cover bicycles, early automobiles, trucks, and muscle cars.
Local stories feature prominently, including the legacy of Mack Trucks, which was founded in the city.
One highlight is Henry Nadig's 1889 gasoline-powered carriage, believed to be one of the earliest of its kind in America.
Located within the Lehigh Landing redevelopment, it anchors Allentown's riverfront revival efforts.
A covered bridge from 1841
Bogert's Covered Bridge was built in 1841 using white oak timbers and still stretches across Little Lehigh Creek inside Lehigh Parkway.
The structure uses a Burr arch truss, a design that combines an arch with multiple posts to strengthen the span.
For more than a century, it carried wagons and automobiles, but today it is reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.
Floods and accidents have damaged the bridge several times, yet it has been restored each time to preserve its role in the park.
At nearly 150 feet long, it is the oldest covered bridge in Lehigh County that still stands.
Li'l-Le-Hi Trout Nursery
Inside Allentown's Lehigh Parkway sits the Li'l-Le-Hi Trout Nursery, a city-run facility that raises brown and rainbow trout.
Families often stop by to buy small handfuls of feed and toss them into the tanks, watching schools of fish churn the water.
Signs explain the trout-rearing process, from egg to fingerling, and the paths around the nursery connect to longer trails that run through the park.
Just a few yards away, Little Lehigh Creek flows past.
Portions of the stream are classified as Class A Wild Trout Water by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, with catch-and-release stretches popular among anglers.