The William Allen High School Archives

02/24/2023

Hello Everyone. We have received sad news about Mr. Louis DeLorenzo, who was the Principal of William Allen High School from 1991-1999. Unfortunately, Mr. DeLorenzo passed away yesterday.

Mr. DeLorenzo, or Mr. D., as so many of us called him, had a long career with the Allentown School District. He was a Social Studies Teacher at Wm. Allen, a Guidance Counselor at Dieruff, and an Assistant Principal at both Trexler Middle School and William Allen High School. He was appointed Principal after Dr. Ray Erb, Jr., was appointed as an Assistant Superintendent for the ASD.

Mr. DeLorenzo’s wife, Linda, and his son, Chip, are both proud graduates of WAHS.

03/10/2022

Thank you to the anonymous person who dropped off two yearbooks and this gem, a page of a graduation program from 1870. We have very few items from the 1800s in the collection, and this is a rare find!

03/05/2022

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm happy to report things are starting to come together! Take a look at the finished shelving in our archive room! Now to start inventory so we know how many archive boxes to order.

05/16/2021

Update: now that we're back in the building I've been able to start making up for lost time. Storage area shelving is done, ordering shelving for the main room this week, and currently packing the old room as well as organizing the boxes in this one. Lots to do, but happy with what we've been able to accomplish so far!

03/23/2021

Here is a link to the presentation I did today on our history. Enjoy!

An overview of the history of Allentown High School in Allentown, PA. Links to WFMZ and Morning Call articles on the archives:WFMZ - https://www.wfmz.com/fea...

03/22/2021

Creating a history presentation for our 9th graders and decided at the last minute to restructure the presentation. Went to Newspapers to look up some names and hit the jackpot. More to come, including link to video presentation.

11/25/2020

In 1948, the school district was featured in Life magazine for their achievements in education and having one of the better salaries in the area for teachers. This is a photo from the spread. Allen used to have a school soda fountain!

11/22/2020

Working on a project for school and I've been finding photos of old Allen buildings. The Garber-Horne building, Leh's, and First Presbyterian held some of our first classes. Today we know them as the ASD Admin building, the Lehigh County Government Center, and the Allentown Art Museum.

11/22/2020

I wanted to take a moment to announce that a few weeks ago, the William Allen Archives was the recipient of a Century Fund grant for $5000. I am happy and humbled to be among those chosen for a grant this year.

Phase One of the project (organizing, preserving, inventory) is roughly $18,000. To date we have received roughly $6500 in grant funding. I cannot thank you all for your support.

10/26/2020

Hello fellow alumni and friends! As you know I am the school archivist, but I am also now the advisor for the newly reformed Allen Historical Society. I would like to do some fundraising to create some sort of budget for archival materials and costs. I'm thinking of a t-shirt with maybe a list of Allen's greatest moments. I have a few questions maybe you can help me with:
1. What would you like to see on a t-shirt? What are some of Allen's greatest moments
2. What other archive related fundraisers would work? I know we used to have postcards. I'm thinking of a vintage postcard sale featuring photos from different Allen decades?
3. We would have to do pre-orders since we have no operating budget. If we did a sale, how many of you would be interested and how many would do a pre-order?

Thank you for your help. To date, I have 20 very excited Allen students ready to learn our dear Alma Mater's history and I expect that number to grow. Kids were always stopping by the room last year and getting caught up in our history. I'm excited to bring this back to Allen.

Also if you were in the Historical Society I would love to hear from you!

07/07/2020

Popped into school today to pick up some other archive items and was given this! Someone dropped off a few framed 1923 medals. I have seen a few medals come through in the last year, but not this old. It's truly amazing what our alumni and family of alumni are willing to give!

07/03/2020

Our new AD has been spending some time learning our schools storied athletic history (he's not an Allen grad but since he's learning, we can let it slide). Today he came across this photo of the 1928 Allentown High School football team. One of the young men in that photo is Jack Coffield. Can anyone point him out?