Lehigh Valley Buzz

A weekly look around the Lehigh Valley.

Issue 3 - Bacon Fest weekend and when the leaf trucks hit your street

Hey. It's Election Day, the leaves are finally coming down, and there's bacon in Easton this weekend. Here's your week around the valley.

What's in this one

1

Hot picks · PA Bacon Fest takes over downtown Easton this weekend, and Nazareth turns into Stars Hollow on Saturday. Air Supply plays the State Theatre on Friday.

2

Field guide · Leaf pickup around the valley: when the trucks hit your street in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

3

The scrap · A barber's mom cleans his already-clean shop, and Hellertown wins Sheetz vs. Wawa by having both.

4

What's building · Center Square's paving schedule wraps up, and ground breaks on a warehouse on old Mack land and a small hospital in Coopersburg.

5

Makers · Belleville Market's holiday open house on Thursday and two Bethlehem craft fairs on Saturday. Plus a new mural in a parking garage.

6

Deep cut · The ironmaster of Catasauqua: the Welshman who got anthracite iron going on Front Street, born 232 years ago today.

7

Season · The Bethlehem Farmers Market's last Thursdays and an Election Day bake sale at Hellertown's old grist mill.

Hot picks

This weekend's best bets around here.

Bacon takes over downtown Easton this weekend, and on Saturday Nazareth turns itself into a TV town for the day. If you want a warm-up, Air Supply plays the State Theatre on Friday night.

Bacon on a stick on a paper tray in front of the Centre Square monument in Easton. Hatch illustration.

Easton · Sat Nov 7 and Sun Nov 8 · 10am to 5pm

PA Bacon Fest turns 15

PA Bacon Fest is back in downtown Easton for its 15th year, centered on Centre Square and spilling down the streets around it toward the Free Bridge and along Third Street. Discover Lehigh Valley's guide lists things like bacon on a stick and chocolate-covered bacon. The Racin' Bacon 5K goes off Sunday at 9am, and there's a pet costume contest at noon both days on the Easton Farmers' Market stage at Second and Northampton. Downtown streets close to cars, so plan on a garage (the city garages are $20, credit card only) or the $20 cash shuttle from Braden Airpark. The Easton Farmers' Market takes this Saturday off because of the festival. There's also a Swine Holding Competition where you see how long you can hold a glass piggy bank before it drops, and I need someone to explain how that's not an Olympic sport yet. PA Bacon Fest · Discover Lehigh Valley

Illustration: Buzz Artist

Nazareth · Sat Nov 7 · 11am to 5pm

Stars Hollow in Nazareth

Downtown Nazareth goes full Gilmore Girls on Saturday. You pick up a Stars Hollow Passport at any participating business, wander the shops and restaurants collecting stamps, and turn it in for a shot at a themed prize. The Moravian Historical Society at 214 E. Center St. has live music from Perpetual Friday starting at noon plus food vendors, and the Memorial Library on East Center Street is a passport stop with a bookmark craft. The Luke-A-Like Contest is back too. Nazareth already has the square and the small-town coffee energy, so honestly all it ever needed was a guy in a backwards cap refusing to let you use your phone. Moravian Historical Society · Lehigh Valley Moms

Image: Moravian Historical Society

The State Theatre marquee on Northampton Street in Easton

Easton · Fri Nov 6 · 7:30pm · $90 to $140

Air Supply at the State Theatre

Air Supply brings its A Matter of Time Tour to the State Theatre at 453 Northampton St. on Friday night. The theatre is billing it as a 50-year celebration for the duo, with the new album mixed in alongside "All Out of Love" and "Lost in Love." Ticket prices include fees and taxes. It's also part of the State Theatre's 100th season, which is a lot of history for one room. A soft-rock power ballad on Friday and bacon on Saturday is my idea of a balanced weekend. State Theatre

State Theatre, Easton. Photo: DutchTreat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Field guide

One useful guide to living around here.

Leaf piles along the curb in front of rowhouses under bare trees, with a leaf truck down the street. Hatch illustration.

Illustration: Buzz Artist

Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton · the curb in front of your house

Leaf pickup around the valley: when the trucks hit your street

The leaves are finally coming down, and all three cities started their leaf trucks this week. The catch is that every city does it a little differently, and if you rake at the wrong time, your pile just sits there until the next round.

In Bethlehem, the trucks skip today for Election Day and then work the West Side on Wednesday and the North Side on Thursday and Friday. The city wants leaves in the gutter before the crew gets to your street, cars moved if you can manage it, and no plastic bags at all. Allentown is working Districts 4 through 8 through Friday, then moves to Districts 10, 11 and 12 next Monday. Over there you keep the pile about a foot off the curb, and each district gets two passes plus a final sweep. Easton runs by ward, and it goes the other way on bags: the city will pick up leaves bagged in clear plastic if you call for an appointment, and it'll even hand you free bags.

Two cities a few miles apart with opposite rules on plastic bags is the most Lehigh Valley thing I've learned all year. The full guide has every district on this week's schedule plus the phone numbers to call.

Read the field guide

The scrap

The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.

A mom sweeps around the chairs in a barber studio, then her son walks her out the door

Lehigh Valley · a local barber studio

Mom visits the barbershop

His mom's first visit to his barber studio, and she starts cleaning a shop that was already clean. TikTok

via @edwinthebarber

Quote card of the X post: We just got a Sheetz and a Wawa in Hellertown a few months ago. They are merely two lights away from each other. I think Hellertown won!

Hellertown · a Sheetz and a Wawa, two lights apart

Hellertown won

Hellertown has a Sheetz and a Wawa two lights apart, and one neighbor says that means Hellertown won. X

via @Ow75Tina

Quote card of answers from a Nextdoor thread asking where the best wings are, ending with: On the best birds

Allentown area · a Nextdoor thread

Where Nextdoor gets wings

Nextdoor asked for the valley's best wings and one neighbor answered, simply, "On the best birds." Nextdoor

via neighbors on Nextdoor (Allentown area)

What's building

What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.

It's Election Day, so polls are open until 8pm tonight if you still need to vote. Meanwhile, the city's paving schedule for Center Square runs out this week, and two big projects broke ground at opposite ends of Lehigh County.

Buildings around Center Square in Allentown at dusk

Allentown · Center Square, 7th and Hamilton · paving scheduled through Fri Nov 6

Center Square's last paving stretch

The city's schedule for the Center Square realignment at 7th and Hamilton put the final paving phase, covering the full length of the project, from Sept 22 through this Friday, Nov 6. Every date on that schedule came with a weather caveat, so treat Friday as the target. The bigger plan includes plaza improvements on the square's northeast and southeast corners, plus new sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, trees and benches on the 600 and 700 blocks of Hamilton, and a raised crosswalk from Hall Street to the PPL Center. The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority committed $3.3 million to the plaza and $1.7 million to that stretch of streetscape. After a whole season of lane closures at 7th and Hamilton, I'll take a raised crosswalk as a peace offering. Paving schedule · Street closures

Center Square, 2021. Photo: Atwngirl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A groundbreaking line of people with shovels between two excavators at Allentown Commerce Park

Allentown · former Mack Trucks land, Allentown Commerce Park

A warehouse goes up on old Mack land

Penntex Construction and Eden Wood Realty broke ground on an industrial building at Allentown Commerce Park, on property that used to belong to Mack Trucks. Lehigh Valley Business reports it's a roughly 154,000-square-foot precast concrete warehouse with 34 loading docks. It's being built to lease once it's done, which the developers expect in spring 2027. Old Mack land getting covered in truck docks feels about right for Allentown. Lehigh Valley Business · lehighvalleylive

Photo: Penntex and Eden Wood, via Lehigh Valley Business

A row of people in hard hats with shovels at the Lehigh Valley Hospital Coopersburg groundbreaking

Coopersburg · Route 309 and Passer Road

A small hospital is coming to Coopersburg

Jefferson Health broke ground last week on Lehigh Valley Hospital Coopersburg, a neighborhood hospital near Route 309 and Passer Road on a campus that straddles Coopersburg Borough and Upper Saucon Township. It's planned as a 24/7 emergency department with 11 ER beds and 10 inpatient beds for people who need to stay overnight. A separate Health Center at Coopersburg on the same site will house practices like primary care and adult rehab. Jefferson expects it to open in late 2027, and another neighborhood hospital off I-78 in Hellertown is due before that. If you've been wondering what that big dirt lot on 309 was going to be, now you know. LVHN · Saucon Source

Photo: Lehigh Valley Health Network

Makers

Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.

Holiday shopping season starts for real this week, with Belleville Market's open house in Easton on Thursday night and a double craft-fair morning in Bethlehem on Saturday. There's also a brand-new mural in a downtown Bethlehem garage that you can go see any day.

Shelves of local goods, jars and cookware inside Belleville Market in Easton

Easton · Thu Nov 5 · 5pm to 8pm · free

Holiday Open House at Belleville Market

Belleville Market at 20 S. 3rd St. kicks off its holiday season Thursday night. The market says the whole place gets decked out for the holidays, with live music and tastings running through the evening, product demos, and holiday-inspired painting. You can meet the merchants and makers who sell there and get a free photo with Santa. Admission is free. A Thursday night with Santa photos and samples is the kind of holiday shopping I can actually commit to. Belleville Market

Photo: Belleville Market

Craft fair tables with quilts and a wreath in a gym. Hatch illustration.

Bethlehem · Sat Nov 7 · 9am to 2pm · $2

NCC's Fall Craft Fair

The Northampton Community College Alumni Association fills the Spartan Center gym at 3835 Green Pond Road with about 190 crafters on Saturday, and the overflow spills into the College Center. Santa and Mrs. Claus are there from 10am to 1pm, and student clubs run a holiday craft table for kids. Admission is $2, or $1 for seniors and NCC students, and kids under 12 get in free. Proceeds go to student scholarships and internship awards. If 190 tables isn't enough, the School Sisters of St. Francis run their own Holiday Craft Fair & Bake Sale the same morning, 9am to 2pm, at Mullen Hall at Monocacy Manor, 395 Bridle Path Road, with more than 70 local crafters expected. Two craft fairs in one Bethlehem morning is how you end up with a car full of ornaments and zero regrets. NCC Craft Fair · School Sisters fair

Illustration: Buzz Artist

A crowd at the unveiling of a mural with large yellow, red and blue birds inside the Walnut Street Garage

Bethlehem · Walnut Street Garage, 33 W. Walnut St. · open now

Hector Castro's new garage mural

The Bethlehem Parking Authority unveiled a new mural inside the Walnut Street Garage on Monday, painted by Lehigh Valley muralist Hector Castro. He drew the Hill to Hill Bridge and the Moravian Church in black and white, then set three huge birds over them in yellow, red and blue. Castro told WFMZ the bridge stands for the connection between the North Side and the South Side, and the birds stand for freedom. It's the third Bethlehem garage to get artwork from the parking authority, and the mural is on the first floor of the garage. I never thought I'd tell anyone to go hang out in a parking garage on purpose, and here we are. WFMZ · TikTok

Video still: @lvwithlove on TikTok

Deep cut

One local history leftover worth knowing.

A 19th-century print of the Lehigh Crane Iron Works in Catasauqua, with furnace stacks along the canal

Lehigh Crane Iron Works, Catasauqua, a period print. Lithograph: L. Crepon; printer: P.S. Duval & Son. Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Catasauqua · Front Street along the Lehigh Canal, where the Crane Iron Works stood

The ironmaster of Catasauqua

David Thomas was born in Wales on Nov 3, 1794, so if he were still around he'd be blowing out candles today. In 1839 the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company brought him across the ocean to solve a problem American ironmakers kept failing at, which was making iron with the hard anthracite coal the canal boats were hauling down the Lehigh. He set up beside the canal in what's now Catasauqua.

On July 4, 1840, his furnace for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company made its first iron. The state historical marker on Front Street calls it the first long-term, commercially successful anthracite iron furnace in the country, and within a few decades the works had six furnaces going. The company built houses for its workers, and Thomas helped start the town's first church and its first fire company.

The furnaces are long gone now. Thomas's 1856 house still stands at Second and Pine, and the borough approved a master plan this fall to redevelop the old Iron Works land. The longer cut has the whole story, including why an iron town on a river ended up with a name usually translated as thirsty ground.

Read the deep cut

Season

What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.

The leaves are coming down for real now, which is why the trucks are out (see the Field guide). The outdoor market season is winding down too, so this is the week to stock up while the tables are still out.

A hand reaching for bunches of radishes and greens at a farmers market stall

Bethlehem · Thu Nov 5 · 10am to 2pm · free

Bethlehem Farmers Market at Farrington Square

The Bethlehem Farmers Market sets up every Thursday at Farrington Square, where New and Morton streets meet on the South Side, and it's down to the last couple of Thursdays of its 19th season. It's producer-only, so the 15-plus vendors grew or made what's on the table, from vegetables and fruit to bread, eggs, honey and dog treats. There's live music every Thursday, and it's free to walk around. A weekday market at lunchtime is the closest I get to feeling like I live in a European movie. Bethlehem Farmers Market

Photo: Lehigh University Office of Sustainability

The stone Heller-Wagner Grist Mill in Hellertown on a sunny day

Hellertown · Tue Nov 3 (today) · 8am to 6pm or until sold out

Election Day bake sale at the Heller-Wagner Grist Mill

The Hellertown Historical Society is selling homemade baked goods at the Heller-Wagner Grist Mill site, 150 W. Walnut St., today from 8am to 6pm or until it sells out. The Society asked neighbors to donate homemade cookies, cakes, pies and breads for it, and the money goes to the Society's general fund for its programs and preservation work. The sale sits near the polling place, and the Society's own pitch is that you can "cast your vote" for your favorite baked good. That's the only election pun I'll allow this year, and I'm allowing it because there's pie. Hellertown Historical Society · LVCiv

Photo: Rpboehme / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

See you around the valley.

Lehigh Valley Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings

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