Category:Lehigh Portland Cement Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Lehigh Portland Cement Company produces cements, concrete and concrete products, lightweight aggregates, and related construction materials and services.

Lehigh Cement was founded in 1897 by six Allentown, Pennsylvania businessmen who invested $250,000 to construct a cement plant in nearby Ormrod. The Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania was admirably suited for the production of cement and became the center of the nation's cement industry because of its plentiful deposits of limestone containing approximately the correct mixture of minerals--except for gypsum--for grinding and burning directly into cement.

Lehigh Cement's first president was Harry J. Trexler, a lumber dealer. Edward M. Young, another of the original founders and the proprietor of a family hardware business, succeeded Trexler as president in 1926. After his death in 1932, his son Joseph S. Young succeeded him as president and chief executive officer. Joseph Young's son William J. Young succeeded his father in these positions in 1964. He remained at the company until 1983, when he retired from his post as chairman of the board.

By 1920 Lehigh Cement was the nation's biggest cement company in terms of number of plants, with annual production of more than 12 million barrels of portland cement.

After 80 years of independent operation it was purchased by a German company, Heidelberger Zement A.G., in 1977. Heidelberger Zement, in 1995, placed under Lehigh's corporate umbrella the cement and construction materials operations in North America of the Belgian company Cimenteries CBR S.A., also a Heidelberger affiliate. This merger quadrupled Lehigh's revenues and made it the third largest cement producer in North America.