The Hotel Allen was a hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was demolished in 1956.
History
The northeast corner of Center Square (Seventh and Hamilton Streets) in Allentown was the site of several inns and hotels since its founding in 1762. Sometime in 1762 a man named George Wolf established at the corner of Hamilton and Allen (as Seventh Street was then called) an inn. By doing that he became the first known operator of what they called then, "a house of entertainment for man and beast" in little Northamptontown. The name of the inn, not recorded until 1773, was the King of Prussia. Reportedly, the inn's sign featured an image that was supposed to represent Frederick the Great, the military monarch who was then occupying the Prussian throne.
Wolf left Allentown in 1768 and his inn passed to other hands. Because of its central location it became a focal point of activity. Beginning in 1809 George Savits, the first Postmaster of Allentown, purchased the property who renamed it the Square and Compass, in 1810.
The inn got a face lift and new lease on life under the name of Allen House, which was adopted about 1859. By the late 1870s, with the arrival of stagecoach lines and railroads bringing more guests than ever, the wooden Allen House hotel was falling apart. It was replaced by a six-story brick and steel hotel, the Hotel Allen. Built in the Victorian Style, it was designed to be the grand hotel of the city. Opened in 1882, the six-story, 150 room building's graceful form defined the northeast corner of Center Square.
the Allen Hotel's first floor included a large lobby with a luxurious sitting room. All rooms also had electric lighting, and some rooms even had private baths. Also several retail stores, including the Koch and Shankweiler men's clothing store were located. An observation tower, located on the seventh floor, offered a panoramic view of the city. During the 1890s, it was connected to both the Lehigh and Consolidated phone systems, the region's two phone companies.
The hotel became a landmark in Allentown, hosting businessmen, wealthy travelers, political figures and other important guests to the city. Located in the heart of the Central Business district, it was a stop on the new electric street railway when it opened in 1892, bringing visitors to the city directly from the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station at Third and Hamilton streets. Among those entertained here before speaking engagements at the Lyric Theater (now Miller Symphony Hall) were presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt even spoke in 1914 to a cheering crowd from its balcony. The Hotel Allen's food was considered the best in the city and during the summer an orchestra performed regularly on what was called its "rustic porch garden.".
The opening of the Americus Hotel in 1927 severely affected the Hotel Allen, with the new, larger and modern Americus attracting many of the visitors to Allentown that previously used the Allen. The Great Depression and World War II also fueled the decline of the hotel and its finances. It also had become outdated, and the property was condemned in 1947. The owners at the time, the Koch Brothers who operated a clothing store on the ground floor, renovated the property, modernized the basement and removed its upper stories, leaving the hotel with the ground floor and two upper stories. However despite the economic boom of the postwar era, the aging hotel closed its doors in 1954.
The First National Bank, then located adjacent to the hotel at 13 North Seventh Street purchased the property in 1955. Plans were made to demolish the 70-year-old hotel which began in the spring of 1956. A new First National Bank building in the modified Art Moderne style opened in 1958 and was enlarged in the early 1970s. After a series of bank mergers the First National Bank closed its doors in the early 1990s and the property was vacant for about fifteen years. The First National Bank building was itself demolished in 2012, and is now the site of the new Two City Center office complex, currently under construction with a planned 2014 opening date.
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