Editing Stockertown, Pennsylvania (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Centennial hotel.JPG|thumb|An 1877 lithograph print of the Sandt & Co. Building and the Centennial Hotel]]
[[Image:Stockertown.png|thumb|An inset from an 1874 atlas of [[Northampton County, Pennsylvania|Northampton County]] showing Stockertown<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/beyond_viewer.php?DMTHUMB=1&searchworks=cat24&ptr=11003|title=Atlas of Northampton County (1874) (Hosted by Lehigh University)|access-date=2008-10-15}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Railtrail.jpg|thumb|A September 2006 view of the formerly-undeveloped Stockertown Rail Trail. Its intersection with Dogwood Lane is just out of view.]]
Stockertown was named for the Stockers, a Swiss family who settled on the land in the late 18th century.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1L4iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NLYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1521%2C1967929 | title=Sign honors founder, but it's the wrong guy | work=Allegheny Times | date=November 6, 2005 | access-date=23 April 2015 | author=Martinez, Arlene | pages=A12}}</ref> The post village was referred to as ''Stockersville'' as of 1845, and described as a very fertile area.<ref>{{cite book | first=I. Daniel | last=Rupp | year=1845 | title=History of Northampton, Lehigh, Monroe, Carbon, and Schuylkill Counties| url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnortham00inrupp }}</ref> In late 1900, by which time the village was being called ''Stockertown'', a group of the village's citizens petitioned Northampton County Court to grant the community the status of a borough. That petition was granted and, early in 1901, the borough government was organized.

In 1906, a cement plant, which later became [[Buzzi Unicem|Hercules Cement]], was constructed as The Nazareth Works of Atlantic Portland Cement Company.  It acquired the name of Hercules Cement Company in 1916 after its holdings after Atlantic Portland Cement filed for bankruptcy.  It has changed owners many times through mergers, and as of 2008 is owned by [[Buzzi Unicem]].

Liberty Hose Fire Company #1 formed in 1922, and the borough bought their first firetruck in 1925.  After [[World War II]], Liberty Hose opted to build a memorial in honor of the war's veterans.  The building became the borough's Memorial Hall.  In the late 1990s, Liberty Hose moved from its original building on [[State Route 2025 (Northampton County, Pennsylvania)|Main Street]] to a new facility along State Street.  This building is now the home to Stockertown's police offices and other emergency vehicles.  In 2006, Liberty Hose Fire Company was disbanded.

The freeway now known as [[Pennsylvania Route 33|Route 33]], which runs through Stockertown, began construction in 1959 from [[Wind Gap, Pennsylvania|Wind Gap]] to [[Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania|Saylorsburg]].  Meetings were first held with residents of Stockertown in the mid 1960s, and the Stockertown portion of the highway was constructed in 1971, opening in 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pahighways.com/state/PA1-50.html|title=Pennsylvania Highways: PA 1-50|access-date=2008-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=LoPresti |first=Virginia |title=History of the Borough of Stockertown to 1976 |date=May 1976 |publisher=Stockertown Borough Council |location=Stockertown, PA |pages=29–30}}</ref>