Category:Arbogast & Bastian, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Arbogast & Bastian, commonly known as A & B began in 1887. The company was located at Front and Hamilton Streets in Allentown. Its founders were Wilson Arbogast and Milton Bastian.

It started as a smokehouse for ready-cured meat products from various suppliers, and A&B operated as a wholesaler to various food distrubutors. The buisness of being a smokehouse was a smelly one, and the odor of smoke, along with that of a nearby sewage plant would be commonplace around the area of Front and Hamilton Streets.

As the buisness grew, the smokehouse expanded to include a slaughterhouse. Eventually, the slaughterhouse was expanded to process cattle. A&B would slaughter the animals and then send the carcasses to butchers in the area, expanding eventually to include most of the northeast. At full operation, the plant slaughtered 3,000+ hogs a day. The hogs were delivered by livestock trucks on Front Street which went through the process inside. In addition, a variety of meat products were made for local stores which were delivered by trucks. Hot dogs, various cuts of beef, pork hams and products such as lard.

Wilson Arbogast retired in the 1920s, however the company kept its name. During both World Wars, A&B meat products were a major supplier to the US Military, providing the services with meat products for their dining halls around the world.

For nearly a century, A&B hams and ribs to hot dogs and bacon, A&B meats were a staple in homes accross the United States. However by 1984, the company was facing bankrupsy due to poor meat market conditions and it stopped production when it stopped slaughtering in in Allentown during May 1984. Later that month, A&B filed for chapter 11 bankrupsy and closed its doors.

After standing vacant for several years, much of A&B was torn down in the 1990s to make way for the America on Wheels museum. The former A&B buisness office, however was retained and remodled to become part of the museum