Category:Western Electric, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Western Electric announced plans for opening a manufacturing plant in Allentown on 11 October 1945, after a nationwide search Delays caused by shortages of construction material and the postwar Federal Civilian Production Board put a freeze on any new building projects that did not involve easing the national housing crunch delayed the opening of the plant until 11 October 1948. The Western Electric plant would be 250,000 square feet in size, cost $2.5 million and employ both men and women. The area's trained female work force was cited as a particular reason for picking Allentown. The facility would involve glass working and the production of vacuum tubes and quartz crystals. However, advances in technology meant that the plant's planned use would be very different.

With Bell Lab scientists and a skilled Allentown labor pool, Western Electric soon found itself at the forefront of the revolution in electronics. The plant would produce a tiny metal device about the size of a shoelace tip, serves nearly all the functions of a conventional vacuum tube, the transistor. On 1 October 1951 the world's first transistor production began at the Allentown plant. It would become the backbone of a communications revolution. Over the years the Allentown plant was at the forefront of the postwar electronics revolution.

In the years to come, work at the plant included the development of the Telstar communications satellite and the first United States manned space flights. By 1964 there were 6,000 employees working at the facility. Western Electric came to an end in 1995 when AT&T changed the name of AT&T Technologies to Lucent Technologies. Lucent was merged with Alcatel SA of France in 2006, Allentown manufacturing facility was subsequently closed.

In 2017, the Executive Education Academy Charter School bought the facility. The property consists of five buildings, two of which the charter school uses. Other tenants include CareerLink and state offices.