[4] The Peace Candle, a candle-like structure, is assembled and disassembled every year atop the Civil War monument for the Christmas season.

On September 8, 1751, a letter was sent to Colonial Governor James Hamilton by Penn requesting that a new town on the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers be named Easton and that it be in a new county called Northampton.

[6] In 1752, as requested, the city was named in honor of Lady Juliana's family estate, the Easton Neston.

[7] The Lenape Native Americans originally referred to present-day Easton and its surrounding region as Lechauwitank, meaning "the Place at the Forks".

[9][10] Thomas Penn set aside a 1,000-acre (4 km2) tract of land at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers for the town's establishment, and the city was formally founded in 1752.

Easton and the broader Lehigh Valley region played an instrumental and supportive role during the American Revolution, which commenced in 1775.

In recognition of the strong pro-revolutionary sentiment in the city and region, Easton was one of only three designated locations, along with Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, where the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in public for the first time on July 8, 1776, at noon, four days following its unanimous passage by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

[16] Located at the confluence of the rapidly flowing Lehigh River and the deeper and wider Delaware River, Easton became a major commercial center during the canal and railroad periods of the 19th century and a transportation hub for the region's coal, iron, and steel industries.

Seeing other ways of exploiting the new fuel source, other entrepreneurs quickly moved to connect across the Delaware River reaching into the New York City area to the east through the Morris Canal in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, so the town became a canal hub from which coal from Mauch Chunk reached the world.

The Pennsylvania guide, compiled by the Writers' Program of the Works Progress Administration in 1940, described the rich and cosmopolitan fabric of Easton's society in the first half of the 20th century:[20]The city is a composite of a hurried commercial present and a sedate mercantile past, leavened by a carefree college atmosphere.

Coeds, dressed according to the dictates of Hollywood, and college boys in sports clothes and near-white buckskin shoes worn without regard for time or season, rub elbows with frugal Pennsylvania Dutch.

A familiar sight on market days is the trucks and wagons, loaded with farm produce, drawn up to the curb at the Circle [Centre Square].

Women, scrupulously clean in their calico house dresses, and men in overalls or 'Sunday best,' arrange makeshift counters on which to display their vegetables, meats, crocks of apple butter, and pastries.On December 16, 1925, the nation's largest fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, was founded at Lafayette College in Easton.

Easton is divided into four districts: Downtown (DD), College Hill (CH), South Side (SS), and West Ward (WW).

South Easton, divided by the Lehigh River from the rest of the city, was a separate borough until 1898; it was settled initially by Native Americans and later by canal workers, and home to several silk mills.

The growth in Latino residents is similar to increases in Allentown and Bethlehem, the Valley's two largest cities.

Lafayette is located in Easton's College Hill section and is home to 2,514 undergraduate students as of the 2022–2023 academic year.

[39] Prior to the American Civil War, Easton was also home to Union Law School, which was founded in 1846 but struggled soon after the death of its founder, Judge Washington McCartney, a decade later, in 1856.

"[40] Easton is the home of 27 interactive children's attractions, and the National Canal Museum, which focuses on the region's canal history, and the Crayola Experience, which is owned by Crayola LLC, formerly known as Binney & Smith, a major toy manufacturer based in nearby Forks Township.

Majestic Athletic, current provider of Major League Baseball uniforms, is headquartered in nearby Palmer Township.

WDIY-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate located in Bethlehem, maintains a translator in Easton and broadcasts at 93.9 FM.

[41] Easton was once served only by the 215 area code from 1947 when the North American Numbering Plan of the Bell System went into effect until 1994.

In response to southeastern Pennsylvania's growing telecommunication demand, Easton telephone exchanges were switched to area code 610 in 1994.

It briefly passes through the southeastern corner of the city on an east–west alignment, but the nearest interchange is in adjacent Williams Township.

Pennsylvania Route 33 briefly crosses the far southwestern corner of Easton, but the nearest interchange is in Bethlehem Township.

Air transport to and from Easton is available through Lehigh Valley International Airport, which is located approximately 11 miles (18 km) west of the city, in Hanover Township.

NJ Transit provides bus service from Center Square in Easton to Phillipsburg and Pohatcong in New Jersey along the 890 and 891 routes.

[47][48] The city's Public Works department provides water, sewer service, and trash and recycling collection to Easton.

The city's water is treated at a filtration plant along the Delaware River and then stored in reservoirs and delivered to customers.

[50] The city's Public Works department contracts with Raritan Valley Disposal for trash and recycling collection in Easton.