Bath is located at the head of the
Monocacy Creek in an area of the
Lehigh Valley that was once rich in agriculture. The greater area of the town, however, lies east of the Monocacy Valley. Prior to European settlement, Bath was inhabited by the
Lenape Indigenous tribe. Bath was established in 1728 as a
Scotch-Irish settlement before the
American Revolution as the first settlement by white people in the Forks of the
Delaware River. It is named for
Bath, Somerset, England by Margaret DeLancey, who sold land under her father, lieutenant colonel of the
Continental Army,
William Allen, in the 1700s. The ruins include a series of small underground chambers. Only one of the original buildings stand, with the larger barn having collapsed or disassembled sometime after 1916. There is evidence of fire damage to the fort and surrounding trees. In the early 1900s Bath became the site of a growing cement industry. The Bath Portland Cement Company was the first plant to open, and its kiln can still be seen from Nor-Bath Blvd. The company was later replaced by the Keystone Cement Company, which still operates to this day and is a major employer and pillar of the Bath community. The Penn-Dixie Cement Company also quarried in east Bath, but no longer exists. The property around the quarry and ruins of the former plant are owned by Lehigh Hanson. The Effort Foundry, a steel foundry from Effort, PA, moved to Bath in the early 1980s and employs around 70 people. On August 18, 2012, Bath celebrated its 275th anniversary. In 1999, the Bath Business and Community Partnership (BBCP) was established for managing urban revitalization initiatives, including creating a greener town, organizing volunteers, and developing economic restructuring/asset enhancement. ==Geography==