Category:Martin Mansion, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Martin mansion 

historic home in Allentown, Pennsylvania
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Instance of	historic house
Location	Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Street address	900 Hamilton St., Allentown, PA
Dissolved, abolished or demolished date	1960
Authority file  Q120695542 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file Search depicted

The Martin House, or sometimes referred to as the Dresher-Martin Mansion was a home built at 902 Hamilton Street., the southwest corner of Hamilton and Ninth Street.

The home was origionally owned by Nathan Dresher, a prominent citizen of early Allentown and a successful lumber dealer. The Dresher family moved to Allentown from Berks Country in 1837 and shortly afterwards opened the lumber buisness. The origional home was built sometime after that on a large lot at It consisted of a three story gable roof brick home with front marble trim, arched doorway, high marble steps and stoop. It also had solid white window shutters on the first floor and green shutters with moveable slats on the upper stories. Along with the home was a wooden smokehouse at the rear of the property for preparing meat, and a washhouse with heated bathrubs and clothes washing facilities.

In 1870/71, the home was expanded by Nathan Dresher for his daughter Anna Dresher and her husband Dr. Henry Martin. Dr Martin had been a surgeon for the Union Army during the Civil War. The addition consisted of a large 3-story section in the rear along South Ninth Street. This expanded the home to a a 20-room mansion. The home included a walnut staircase, eight marble fireplace mantles and a large library. The estate also had a glass greenhouse in a large yard.

The block between Ninth and Tenth streets, between Hamilton and south to Walnut at the time was the home of Allentown's lumber and building buisnesses. To the west was a large lumber yard of Edwin and Jonas Trexler, the father and uncle of later General Harry C. Trexler. The Trexlers were in buisness with the Dresher family at the time the home was expanded in 1870.

The Martins were armong the social class of Allentown at the time, and the home held big social affiars. The Martins also held many events to support their church, the Allentown Grace Episcopal Church. Henry Martin died in 1900 after being hospitalized for many years. After Dr. Martin's passing, his wife Anna interited the home, and his family withdrew from public life.

It is rumored that in 1926, when General Harry Trexler was planning on consolodating the Pennsylvania Power and Light's numerous offices in Allenton, he wanted to build the large PP&L building on the site of the home, and he offered Anne Martin $500,000 for the home and lot. However she declined Trexler's offer. The reason is rumored that Mrs Martin was nearly blind however knew where every piece of furniture in the home was located and did not want to move. Trexler, instead, aquired properties on the northwest corner of 9th & Hamilton and built the tower there instead. Anna Martin passed in 1927 while the tower was under construction.

Their children Nathan Jr and Mary Martin continued to live in the home after their parent's passing. However they seldom left it. The Martin's children lived on income they recieved from their parent's investments in the many buisnesses they owned around the city. In November 1933, the greenhouse of the Martin home at 906 Hamilton Street was leased to build the New York Floral Shop which moved into it from it's former location by the Colonial Theater.

In 1953, the exterior of the home was repainted to the exact color scheme it had in 1870. It was found that almost all of the windows were in good condition. Each of them consisted of the best Georgia pine. However the window sashes and casings and the doors to the home were made of solid black walnut wood, unavailable in 1953. The floor in the vestibule was made of imported Italian marble, along with the same marble along the walls to a height of 4 1/2 feet.

The Martin house caught fire in the basement on July 20th, 1954 and the property was found to be filled with refuse. The Martins were ordered by the Allentown Fire Department to clean out the premises, and 15 truckloads of junk and fire debris were removed from the home.

Nathan Martin, Jr., passed on March 4th, 1956 and his sister Mary just over a year later on April 15th, 1957. The home was subsequently sold later in 1957 for $460,000. The inside of the home was found to have a very large collection of books, as the Martins seemed to be avid readers, and a large amount of artwork. Much of the home had never been updated and remained essentially as it was in the early 1900s. After several years of legal entanglements, it was torn down in 1960.