page_title: Allentown, Pennsylvania
section_title: Early 20th century to present
hierarchical_section_title: Allentown, Pennsylvania / Allentown history / Early 20th century to present
caption_attribution_description: English: Allentown, Pennsylvania in the 1900s.
context_page_description: Allentown is a city that is in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. After Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, it is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, with 106,632 residents as of the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lehigh County.
  The town is in east Pennsylvania about 45 minutes away from the Pocono Mountains.
context_section_description: Economic recovery in the early 20th century was caused by the silk and textile industry. The Adelaide Silk Mill, which was one of the biggest mills in the world, opened in Allentown in 1881. By 1928, there were more than 140 silk and textile mills in the Lehigh Valley which made silk the second biggest industry. By the 1930s, the silk industry was getting slow in all the world because synthetics were taking the place of silk. Catoir Silk Mill, the last silk mill in Allentown, closed in 1989. In 1905, Mack Trucks moved to Macungie, a small suburb of Allentown, which began Allentown's focus on big industrial manufacturing. Today, Allentown's economy is mostly service industries.
caption: Allentown in 1901
exif: {}