File:1900 Hamilton Street looking east from Lumber Street.jpg

English: Photo postcard showing Hamilton Street looking eastbound from Lumber Street about 1900. Lumber Street is a half-street between Eighth and Ninth. It is a busy day in the Central Business District, as many people are walking up and down the sidewalks shopping and doing other forms of business. Hamilton street is not paved, although it is double tracked for Lehigh Valley Transit streetcars. The Soldier's and Sailor's monument on Center Square is in the background, which was erected in 1899.

The first property on the left was the Windsor Cafe, or Windsor Hotel at 819-821 Hamilton St., owned by Joseph F. Gehringer, an immigrant from Wurttemberg, Germany. The Windsor was opened in 1894 and was essentially an old-fashioned saloon with a small hotel upstairs. According to its ads, the Windsor offered wine, liquor and cigars. You could get your shoes shined there, too. And there was the added attraction of bowling alleys. Gehringer operated it for twelve years before selling the property to James J. Powers in 1906. Mr Powers operated the cafe and hotel until about 1918.

With the Windsor's closing, the property was renovated and operated as a retail store. The building, consisting of 815, 817, 819 and 821 Hamilton was used as retail storefronts and professional offices and storage for the next eighty years, going through many owners. The building was torn down around 2000 along with the Hess Brothers and H.L.Green stores. Today it is a grassy lot.

The building with the circular top in the middle of the photo was Allentown's first opera house and stage theater. Named the "Hagenbuch Opera House", it was opened in 1870, Mark Twain gave one of his first public readings there. It was a distinctive building that had large second story windows. While in operation, the Hagenbuch Opera House was at the center of music, entertainment, and culture in Allentown and the Lehigh Valley. The Hagenbuch Opera House operated for only 18 years. By 1886, the Hagenbuch family had turned management of the property over to G. C. Aschbach, who renamed it the Academy of Music. In its last few years of operation, the building was remodeled and used as a ballroom. It also became known as Military Hall because the local militia used the space to perform drills.

In late 1888, the property was sold to John Bowen. Bowen’s selection of exotic coffees from around the world was its hallmark product. He is also said to have been the first person to sell bananas in the city. Bowen's store operated there until 1926. In that year, the building was finally demolished in order to make way for the S. S. Kresge Company 5 & 10 store which operated on Hamilton Street until 1957. The Kresge building remains today, being subdivided into four smaller storefronts.

The tall building at the corner of Eighth Street (801 Hamilton) was the Cross Keys Hotel. This was owned by the same Hagenbuch family which operated the Opera House. It has started as a tavern about 1800 by Henry (Heinrich) Hagenbuch, a Revolutionary War soldier that settled in Northamton Town. During the 19th century the tavern would pass through the family and about 1850, after the great Allentown Fire which had burned down most of the Central Business District of the city, the tavern was rebuilt into the four-story brick building shown in the photograph. In 1900 the building was sold to Nathan Hass, who tore down the building and put up a new five-story building, which reopened as the N.A. Haas & Son Shoe Store, the rest being commercial office space. Haas was a former partner with the Farr family who left in 1900 to establish his own shoe business. It would close in 1912 when Haas sold the property and left the business. Over the decades, the building has had numerous businesses and today is still in use.