English: In the late 1870s, Allentown's iron industry collapsed. It left the city economically depressed and to prevent this from happening again, efforts were made to develop a diversifed industrial base. Convincing the Phoenix Manufacturing Company to open a silk mill in Allentown was the first major success of that effort.

In his speech at the opening of the mill, Mayor Edwin G. Martin boasted of the many advantages Allentown had compared to other cities. Among those were cheap transportation, inexpensive energy costs, proximity to other major cities of the Northeast, clean water, and the many available workers in the city.

These benefits would convince other industries to locate to Allentown over the following decades.