Local History

A two-alarm fire broke out at an abandoned historic home where plans for a luxury apartment building lay in wait.

The 44th Roasting Ears of Corn festival in Allentown will feature a performance by an Andean flutist, Aztec dancers, ceremonial dances and family activities.

Officials in Bethlehem celebrated part of the city's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Wednesday, while making plans for the site's future.

Central Moravian Church hosted a joint service Sunday with congregations based at three other historic Moravian settlements that recently became the first joint UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Joe Kovacs, a Nazareth-area native and Bethlehem Catholic grad, is competing in his third Olympic Games as a member of Team USA. The shot put finals are Saturday afternoon.

Easton officials paid respect Saturday to 43 African Americans whose grave sites have been built over. The city expects to honor their memory with a new memorial in the months to come.

The Buffalo Soldiers are set to ride from Allentown to Easton's Nesquehoning Street Park in remembrance of the men interred at a forgotten site as part of the "Forgotten Soldiers Ride" on Saturday.

Bethlehem joins 25 other places in the United States as a World Heritage Site — an effort that has been decades in the making and, advocates hope, bolsters historic preservation and tourism in the Lehigh Valley.

A vote in favor would put Historic Moravian Bethlehem among 25 other sites nationally and 1,199 around the world, including the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef.

South Whitehall Township plans to put a referendum to create an open space tax on the May 20 primary in 2025.