For the city in the Lehigh Valley

Lehigh Valley

The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...

 region of eastern Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, see Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

Allentown is a south neighborhood of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The zip code used by residents is 15210, and has representation on the Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 3 (Central South Neighborhoods).

History

Beltzhoover Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare that separates Allentown and Knoxville

Knoxville (Pittsburgh)

Knoxville is a south neighborhood on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has a zip code of 15210, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 3 .-History:...

 (to the east) from Beltzhoover

Beltzhoover (Pittsburgh)

Beltzhoover is a neighborhood in southern Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in an area known as the South Hills.The area is named for George Beltzhoover who was a farmer there in the early portion of the 19th century. The community contains a park called McKinley Park...

 and Mt. Washington

Mount Washington (Pittsburgh)

Mount Washington is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's south city area. It has a zip code of 15211 and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both the council members for District 3 and District 2 .It is known for its steep hill overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline, which was...

 (to the west). The city of Pittsburgh expanded and absorbed these areas lying southward of the original city of Pittsburgh.

Allentown was carved out of St. Clair Township

St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, was one of the original townships created with the incorporation of Allegheny County in 1788. The township was named after Arthur St. Clair, an American Revolutionary War general and president of the Continental Congress in 1787.The township...

, which was one of the original townships of Allegheny County

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Allegheny County is a county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,223,348; making it the second most populous county in Pennsylvania, following Philadelphia County. The county seat is Pittsburgh...

. On April 26, 1827, Joseph Allen, an Englishman, purchased the land that would eventually be known as Allentown from Jeremiah Warder. Incorporated on March 2, 1870 and annexed by the City of Pittsburgh on April 2, 1872, Allentown was settled by many skilled German immigrants who established businesses. Welsh, Irish, and English settlers made up the second largest immigrant population.

Allentown developed quickly due to its convenient location to downtown Pittsburgh as well as due to the available transportation. Two main roads south from Pittsburgh merged on the hilltop in Allentown: Washington Road (today’s Warrington Avenue) and Brownsville Turnpike Road (today’s Arlington Avenue). The neighborhoods were connected at first by horse-drawn streetcar

Horsecar

A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...

s and later by the electric streetcar. In 1888 Allentown became the first site west of the Allegheny Mountains

Allegheny Mountains

The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...

 to operate an electric streetcar. Ever since then the trolley, or ‘T’

Pittsburgh Light Rail

The Pittsburgh Light Rail is a light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it functions as a subway in Downtown Pittsburgh and largely as an at-grade light rail service in the suburbs. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County...

, has run through the neighborhood of Allentown, keeping the hilltop residents connected to downtown Pittsburgh. In the past there were five inclines that served Allentown, the most famous of which was the curved Knoxville incline with a station at the intersection of Warrington and Arlington. Today the Brown Line of the ‘T’

Brown Line (Pittsburgh)

The Brown Line was a service on the Pittsburgh Light Rail system that runs from South Hills Junction over Mount Washington and across the Monongahela River to downtown Pittsburgh, terminating at Gateway Center...

, several bus routes, and many more roads connect the neighborhood with the downtown, South Side, and beyond.

External links

• Interactive Pittsburgh Neighborhoods Map