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This photo taken about 1934 shows (from left) Robert Holden; John W. Hunter; his father, Fred Hunter; and an unidentified boy on Whitehall Street in Allentown.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. As the foundation is laid, a derrick is erected to help move steel beams into place in January 1927. Annie Martin's three-story house is visible across Hamilton Street.

PPL building construction. The new 23-story PP&L Tower in Allentown, a model 20th century skyscraper, as illuminated in July 1928. When it opened that month, it had the world's fastest elevator.

PPL building construction. The tower's skeleton in 1927. Eight decades later, the skyscraper remains Allentown's tallest building.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. The tower's architectural details emerge in July 1927. Its streamlined style and stepped parapets became a model for other art-deco skyscrapers that followed. PP&L's architect, Helmle, Corbett & Harrison, later helped design Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

PPL building construction. This view of early steel framework shows the neighborhood northwest of the tower site in February 1927. A derrick and boom are used to move beams into place.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. Trucks bring materials to the tower site in February 1927. Framework is up for the first three floors.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. Work on the foundation advances in November 1926. Excavators found bedrock an average 78 feet down. The building eventually rose 322 feet above ground level.

Buildings at Ninth and Hamilton streets in Allentown sit empty in January 1926, above, and are demolished, left. They housed the G.R. Kinney Co. shoe store, the Cameron Piano Co., the Pergola movie theater and, at the corner, the Leh & Merkel drug store.

PPL building construction. The Morris Black company of Bethlehem delivers building materials to the rising tower in July 1927.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. Brick work begins in February 1927. The white building in the background is the Hess Bros. department store.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction.

PPL building construction. Steam shovels and trucks remove demolition debris, stone and dirt in October 1926.

PPL building construction. Scaffolds move up the tower in June 1927 as the brickwork progresses.

PPL building construction.

Buildings at Ninth and Hamilton streets in Allentown sit empty in January 1926, above, and are demolished, left, to make way for the PPL Building. They housed the G.R. Kinney Co. shoe store, the Cameron Piano Co., the Pergola movie theater and, at the corner, the Leh & Merkel drug store.

PPL building construction. Model T's and other cars are parked along busy Hamilton Street in Allentown, west of the PP&L Tower construction site, in April 1927. At left is Benesch's furniture store.

PPL building construction. From a low rooftop east of N. Ninth Street, a view of the tower construction in May 1927.