Coopersburg Historical Society, Inc.

06/19/2026

This photograph shows Fairview Street looking west toward North Main Street. Based on the street layout, we believe the photograph captures the intersection with 4th Street. Many of the early houses on this block were built by Henry Titlow, who also lived on Fairview Street. Visible in the image are hitching posts and a street lamp. The dense vegetation indicates the photo was likely taken during the summer.

06/12/2026

Pictured here is the Van Ness House, Coopersburg’s third recorded hotel, constructed around 1883 by Dr. Ambrose Gery, a newly arrived pharmacist from the University of Vermont. He built the three‑story structure at Main Street and Station Avenue which served as a combined drug store, hotel, and boarding house, naming it after a hotel he knew in Burlington, Vermont.

Dr. Gery later practiced medicine from the building, making it both a hotel and a doctor’s office. Before Prohibition, the Van Ness House served as a popular stop for travelers and trolley passengers. When the hotel closed in 1919, the former dining and bar room was converted into a store and ice cream parlor run by Gery’s daughter, Grace.

Over time, the property saw many changes, especially when the trolley stop moved and the waiting room became a barber shop. This addition (seen in the picture) was eventually removed from the building. Later owners reopened the hotel, added apartments, and operated a dining room and bar. The building continued in use under several owners, including the Sloyers, the Lipskys, Mike Fenimore and later Fritzingers.

This building is now the home of the offices of Coopersburg Family Practice and Dr. Douglas C. Shoenberger.

06/07/2026

05/30/2026

Baseball season feels like the perfect time to share this 1912 photograph of a Coopersburg team, taken nearly 115 years ago. The players, ages 15 to 28, were all identified on the back of the original photo. Their names have been added to the image.

Many wear “Cinco” uniforms, likely from a local company team or from previous seasons. This picture captures a carefree moment before life led each of them in very different directions.

Just a year later, Eddie Shaffer, brother of Earl and son of the town butcher, died in a tragic car accident. By 1917 and 1918, Alton Hottel, Burton Knerr, Paul Knerr and John Shaffer were serving in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Later notable careers of these players include:

• Benson Landis who graduated from Moravian, later earned masters and doctorate degrees from Columbia University and worked in federal agencies and later national church councils, publishing several works

• Alton Hottel who became a well known rural mail carrier and directed the Coopersburg Band

• Paul Knerr ran a local car dealership and served in several community organizations

This single photo reminds us of the many lives intertwined with Coopersburg’s history.

05/25/2026

Thank you to follower Donald Hougendobler for sharing this photograph from the Memorial Day ceremonies at Living Memorial Park in Coopersburg, taken on May 30, 1966.

The original photograph was lower quality and a friend of Donald’s enhanced the original using modern technology.

Thank you for contributing this piece of local history on Memorial Day.

05/23/2026

This Memorial Day Weekend, we remember the life and service of Argus H. “Gus” Young, born January 17, 1891 near Coopersburg in Upper Saucon Township. The son of Oscar and Alavesta (Schaeffer) Young. Gus grew up near Blue Church (St. Paul’s Lutheran) and spent his early years working on his family’s farm. He had a special talent for raising chickens and bees. He even took courses in poultry breeding and earned awards at local shows for his black and brown Leghorn stock.

Gus was drafted among the first men from the Lehigh Valley and sent to Camp Meade in November 1917. On July 9th, 1918, he departed on the USS Agamemnon for France with Company K, 316th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Division. This division took part in the Meuse Argonne Offensive, the largest American operation of the war. Gus would have likely faced harsh weather, heavy shelling, and determined German resistance as the 79th fought through the Argonne Forest and toward the strategic heights near Montfaucon.

A newspaper report from the time shared that during intense fighting on September 28, 1918, Gus bent down to cover a wounded comrade with his overcoat to protect him from the cold and rain. In a letter home, he wrote that while he was leaning over, a bullet passed straight through his haversack, narrowly missing him. However, the brutal conditions soon took their toll and he developed pneumonia and meningitis, possibly worsened by the loss of that overcoat.

A final letter from him reached home on October 28th from a hospital near Paris. Gus Young passed away there on November 12, 1918 at the age of 27, just one day after the Armistice ended the fighting. His body was repatriated to the U.S. in May 1921, and he was laid to rest in Blue Church Cemetery.

We do not know of any surviving photographs of Gus himself, but he was described as medium height and build, with light brown hair and light brown eyes. The photo of his grave is courtesy of Tom Meyers and Find-A-Grave.

This weekend, we remember him and the many others for their sacrifice.

05/09/2026

Visit us next Sunday at the Coopersburg Farmers Market!

05/01/2026

With the news of the last J’s Steaks and Subs in Northampton closing, we wanted to share a look back at the former Coopersburg location of this beloved Lehigh Valley chain. Located along Route 309 at Landis Street (317 E Landis St), this spot saw many businesses come and go over the years, with the last being Ice Cream Works before the building was demolished. Today, the site is home to the now‑closed Lafayette Ambassador Bank.

Here is the WFMZ article about the closure of the last remaining location: https://www.wfmz.com/features/eat-sip-shop/heavy-heart-last-location-of-j-s-steaks-subs-to-permanently-close/article_0ca072f4-a5bc-43c7-822d-64c5b7cb3677.html

04/25/2026

This photo looks up East State Street past Town Hall toward the Coopersburg Ambulance Station, a building that now serves as the Coopersburg Police Department. Two iconic pieces of small‑town life appear here, the red‑and‑white public phone booth and the fire company siren.

For decades, public pay phones were essential, but today they’re nearly extinct. This beloved phone booth has survived with a new purpose, now serving town as a little library.

The siren, however, exists now only in memory. For generations, fire sirens were a fixture of small‑town life across the region, including Coopersburg. The daily noon blast was so reliable you could set your watch by it. But as technology advanced, and as the community grew less tolerant of the noise, the siren’s role faded. Coopersburg shut its siren off in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and it was eventually removed.

For many longtime residents, this photo brings back the unmistakable sound of a late‑night alarm calling volunteers to action and alerting the town that help was on the way.

04/17/2026

It's baseball season! Here is a photo of a bunch of young ballplayers from Southern Lehigh. This color slide was taken outside the new Southern Lehigh High School in 1958 when most of the boys in the photo were in 7th grade.

We're sharing the original and a version with each player identified by number. We've identified a couple, see if any of them look familiar to you! Post in the comments to let us know more (or if we made a mistake)!

#3 - Jack Harding
#4 - Bob Cummings (possibly)
#5 - Tinny Bixel
#10 - Rocky Bixel
#11 - David Nester
#14 - Thomas Link
#18 - Gary Egge
#20 - Dale Borger