Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton straddles the Lehigh River as it flows into the Delaware River, which serves as the city's eastern geographic boundary with Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
Easton is the easternmost city in the Lehigh Valley, a region of that is Pennsylvania's third-largest and the nation's 68th-largest metropolitan region with 861,889 residents as of the U.S. 2020 census. The smallest of the Valley's three major cities, Easton has less than half the population of Bethlehem and about one-fourth that of Allentown.
The greater Easton area includes the city of Easton, three townships (Forks, Palmer, and Williams), and three boroughs (Glendon, West Easton, and Wilson). Centre Square, the city's town square in its downtown neighborhood, is home to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, a memorial for Easton-area veterans killed during the American Civil War. In the first half of the 20th century, Centre Square was referred to locally as the Circle. The Peace Candle, a candle-like structure, is assembled and disassembled every year atop the Civil War monument for the Christmas season.
Norfolk Southern Railway's Lehigh Line, formerly the main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, runs through Easton on its way from Phillipsburg to Bethlehem and Allentown. Easton sits northeast of Allentown, north of Philadelphia, and west of New York City.
Etymology
On August 22, 1751, Thomas Penn, the son of William Penn, the colony's founder and original proprietor married Juliana Fermor. On September 8, 1751, Penn wrote a letter to Colonial Governor James Hamilton requesting that a new town on the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers be named Easton and that it be in a new county called Northampton. In 1752, as requested, the city was named in honor of Lady Juliana's family estate, the Easton Neston. The county was named after the estate's location, which was in the south of Northamptonshire, England.
History The Lenape Native Americans originally referred to present-day Easton and its surrounding region as Lechauwitank, meaning "the Place at the Forks"."History of Easton, PA", Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, retrieved January 7, 2025
18th century
The land that includes present-day Easton was obtained from the Lenape in the Walking Purchase in 1737. A plaque commemorating the transaction appears in Easton's town square."Walking Purchase Historical Marker", Explore PA History
Thomas Penn set aside a tract of land at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers for the town's establishment, and the city was formally founded in 1752. The same year, Easton was selected as the county seat of Northampton County. The municipality's street and town plan were first laid out by the surveyor William Parsons, who was commissiined by Penn.
During the French and Indian War, the Treaty of Easton was signed in Easton by the British colonial government then governing the Province of Pennsylvania and the Native American tribes, including the Shawnee and Lenape, from what was then called Ohio Country.
Easton and the broader Lehigh Valley region played an instrumental and supportive role during the American Revolution, which commenced in 1775. In recognition of the strong pro-revolutionary sentiment in the city and region, Easton was one of only three designated locations, along with Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, where the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in public for the first time on July 8, 1776, at noon, four days following its unanimous passage by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia."The Declaration of Independence in Easton", The Historical Database] During the Declaration's reading in Easton, the Easton flag was flown, making it one of the first non-colonial flags to fly in the Thirteen Colonies. The same flag was later used by a militia during the War of 1812 and currently serves as Easton's municipal flag.
Easton maintained a hospital used in the treatment of injured Continental Army soldiers during the war.John C. Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1931-1944), 6: 327–328. On June 18, 1779, General John Sullivan led 2,500 Continental Army soldiers from Easton to engage Indian allies of the British Army on the frontier.Axelrod, Alan, The Real History of the American Revolution, 2007, p. 264
19th century Located at the confluence of the rapidly flowing Lehigh River and the deeper and wider Delaware River, Easton became a major commercial center during the canal and railroad periods of the 19th century and a transportation hub for the region's coal, iron, and steel industries. The Delaware Canal was built soon after the lower Lehigh Canal was opened in 1818 and became effective in delivering much-needed anthracite coal to the region's largest markets, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York City.
Seeing other ways of exploiting the new fuel source, other entrepreneurs quickly moved to connect across the Delaware River reaching into the New York City area to the east through the Morris Canal in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, so the town became a canal hub from which coal from Mauch Chunk reached the world. Early railroads were often built to parallel this transportation corridor.
Historians of angling believe that, in 1845, Samuel Phillipe, an Easton gunsmith, invented the six-strip split-cane bamboo fly rod; this is commemorated by a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission plaque near Easton's Center Square.
By the late 1860s, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (LH&S) and Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR) were built to augment the bulk traffic through the canals and provide lucrative passenger travel services. The LVRR, known as the Black Diamond Line operated twice daily express passenger trains to and from New York City and Buffalo, New York via Easton. The Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), leased and operated the LH&S tracks from the 1870s until the Conrail consolidations absorbed both the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1966. Today, the Lehigh Valley Railroad's main line is the only major rail line that goes through Easton and is now known as the Lehigh Line; the Lehigh Line was bought by the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1999.
In the mid-19th century, canal transportation was largely replaced by railroads, and Easton became a hub for five railroads, including the Jersey Central, Lehigh Valley Railroad, and others. Easton lost its prominence in passenger transportation with the rise of the automobile in the mid-20th century."What happened to Easton's train station?" The Lafayette, April 22, 2022
20th and 21st centuries
Like the Pennsylvania Dutch region to the southwest, Easton was settled largely by Germans. The Pennsylvania Argus, a German language newspaper, was published in Easton until 1917. As part of their heritage, the Germans put up one of the continent's earliest Christmas trees in Easton; Daniel Foley's book states that, "Another diary reference unearthed recently makes mention of a tree set-up at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1816." A plaque in Scott Park along the Delaware River commemorates this event. The Pennsylvania Guide, compiled by the Writers' Program of the Works Progress Administration in 1940, described the rich and cosmopolitan fabric of Easton's society in the first half of the 20th century:
On December 16, 1925, the nation's largest fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, was founded at Lafayette College in Easton.
Geography
Easton is located at (40.688248, −75.216458). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (8.39%) of which is water, including Bushkill Creek and the Lehigh and Delaware rivers. It also includes an island, Getter's Island, which was the site of Pennsylvania's last public execution.
Districts Easton is divided into four districts: Downtown (DD), College Hill (CH), South Side (SS), and West Ward (WW). A number of smaller additional parks and institutional districts also exist.
Downtown Easton lies at the confluence of the Lehigh River and Delaware River and is a low-lying area surrounded by hills to the north, west, and south. North of downtown is College Hill, home of Lafayette College. South Easton, divided by the Lehigh River from the rest of the city, was a separate borough until 1898; it was settled initially by Native Americans and later by canal workers, and home to several silk mills. Wilson, West Easton, and Glendon are directly adjacent to the city. Wilson partly aligns to the same north–south grid as Easton.
City of Easton Districts Division Population Land area DensityDistrict AbbrCensus (2018 est.)% square miles square km persons /mi2 persons /km2 Downtown DD 2,240 8% 0.67 1.74 3,343 1,287 College Hill CH 5,400 20% 2.03 5.26 2,660 1,027 South Side SS 8,720 32% 2.92 7.56 2,986 1,153 West Ward WW 10,530 39% 1.95 5.05 5,400 2,08526,890 Sources
Downtown Historic District Easton's Historic Downtown District lies directly at the confluence of the north banks of the Lehigh River and west banks of the Delaware River. Downtown adjoins each of the three other districts to the north, west, and south. Downtown continues west to Sixth Street and north to US Route 22.
College Hill College Hill is located north of downtown, starting north of US Route 22. This neighborhood is home of Lafayette College, a liberal arts and engineering institution.
South Side The South Side district lies south of the Lehigh River.
West Ward The West Ward district is located west of downtown and encompasses much of west side Easton between Sixth and Fifteenth Streets.
Climate Under the Köppen climate classification, Easton falls within either a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) if the isotherm is used or a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) if the isotherm is used. Summers are usually hot and very muggy, averaging in the mid-80s during the day, though the high humidity makes it feel much warmer. Fall and spring months are typically mild, offering many days in the mid-60s, as well as stronger winds. Winters are usually very cold and produce about 30 inches of snow. The local hardiness zone is 6b.
Government Easton operates a mayor-on-council city government. Residents elect a city controller, six city councilpersons (three at large and three district), and a mayor who is chairman and a voting member of the city council. All these officials are elected to four-year terms. The incumbent mayor, Democrat Salvatore J. Panto, Jr., was reelected to his fourth consecutive term in 2019; he previously served two terms as Easton mayor from 1984 to 1992.
Easton is part of Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, represented in the U.S. House of Representatives currently by Republican Ryan Mackenzie, who was first elected to the office in 2024.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Easton had a population of 28,127. The median age was 32.9 years. 21.1% of residents were under the age of 18 and 12.5% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 101.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 99.0 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 9,956 households in Easton, of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 32.1% were married-couple households, 24.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 33.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 33.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.