Category:Hamilton Hotel, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The original Hotel Hamilton (513-523 West Hamilton Street. It had 65 rooms, restaurant, pool tables and a large horse stable in the rear.

The hotel was built on the site of the John D. Styles mansion, who was a lawyer and represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives (7th District) during the Civil War. He remained in politics until the 1870s when he returned to Allentown and practiced law until his death in 1896. Afterwards, his home was remodeled by his son, Charles Frederick (Fred) Stiles, in 1898 who turned it into the Hotel Hamilton. The location for the hotel would be near the Lehigh County Courthouse and a short walk up the street from the trolley junction at 6th and Hamilton. The Hotel Hamilton became gathering place for Lehigh County's legal minds. The Hotel Hamilton suffered a devastating fire due to a kitchen gas explosion in October 1917 during World War I. With few construction resources available during wartime, the hotel was unable to operate successfully. It was sold to Wilmer & Vincent, who operated the Orpheum Theater on North Sixth Street. The hotel remained open with0ut the kitchen until September 1918 when it was finally closed due to the imminent shutdown of the bar as a result of Prohibition shutting down breweries on December 1st.

Wilmer & Vincent subsequently tore down the property and in 1919, after the wartime construction shortages ended the Colonial Theater was built on the site along with several other buildings, including the Allentown Trust Company building.

Today, the site of the Hotel Hamilton is now Five City Center, built in 2015.