Catasauqua

The George Taylor House, located here, is the 18th-century summer residence of the Durham Furnace’s talented iron master.  Taylor was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence and had three homes in the region.  His summer home in Catasauqua is a National Historic Landmark.  Biery’s Port Historic District along Mulberry and 2nd streets in Catasauqua is a late 19th -early 20th-century urban neighborhood of mixed residential, commercial and industrial uses. The D&L Trail (towpath here) parallels the Biery’s Port district and offers scenic views of Victorian Era homes. You’ll also see remnants of Lock #36 at E.L. Schmid, Inc. (formerly Crane Iron Works).
 
David Thomas opened the Thomas Iron Co. (also known as the Thomas Works) in 1854 at Hokendaqua. In addition to building the furnace plant, the company actually owned the entire town. Hokendaqua’s claim to fame was its proximity to both the Lehigh Canal and limestone quarries that yielded a key ingredient for cement production. Hence, the town became part of the regional cement belt, and a production site for Portland cement.
 
In the early 1800s, entrepreneur Erskine Hazard of the LC&N was looking for a new anthracite-burning industry to build along the Lehigh Canal. Hazard enticed Welsh ironmaster David Thomas to the area to operate local furnaces.  Thomas laid out the towns of Catasauqua and nearby Hokendaqua, built worker housing, and became prominent in both communities.
 
Individually, Catasauqua (“dry ground,” to local Indians) gained notoriety as the site of the nation’s first commercially successful anthracite-burning blast furnace. It began operation in 1840 as the Lehigh Crane Iron Works and was named for George Crane, who had been Thomas’ mentor in Wales.  The plant’s remains are visible today.