The first borough election was held at the tavern of George Savitz, a tavern-keeper who owned the Square and Compass, an inn located at the northeast corner of 7th and Hamilton streets in present-day Center City Allentown.

The first business of the borough government was to order cows to seek other pastures other than the public streets, an action that proved unpopular with Northampton Towne residents.

On April 16, 1836, an act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly changed the name of the community from Northampton Towne to Allentown, and John P. Rhue was burgess.

After his term as mayor ended, he invested significantly in Hope Rolling Mills, which made railroad rail, and was a City Councilman for the Fifth Ward in 1884.

Encouraged business growth and also supported health issues of Civil War veterans and their families providing them medical care.

Afterward, he served as director of Allen Mutual Building and Loan Association, and president of the Allentown Hardware Company until 1897 when his health began to fail and retired.

[16][17] Born in Ironton, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1856, he attended North Whitehall Township schools, then Allentown Academy, and e graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1874.

He joined his father, also a physician in Salisbury Township later that year, although establishing his own office in early 1894 on South Sixth street in Allentown.

He took over the work of Former Mayor Lehr, then a member of the city council and supervised the building of Hanover Avenue and the approach to West Hamilton Street.

Mayor Rinn also inaugurated a custom of holding a Fourth of July celebration at the Allentown Fairgrounds, and the first city sewage system was built under his administration.

[9] Also noted for traveling to Europe in the early 1900s and seeing beautiful hanging gardens and floral lamp posts in Paris and in some cities in Germany.

He believed that it would be a good way to beautify the downtown shopping district and encouraged the city council with idea of purchasing the floral lamp posts during the renovations of Hamilton Street in 1916, taking down overhead electrical and telephone lines and moving them underground.

After graduation, he worked briefly for the Lehigh Valley Railroad as a clerk in Perth Amboy, NJ for several years before returning to Allentown in 1899.

During the 1920s, Gross worked closely with General Harry Trexler, who served on the city Planning Commission during that time, to create Allentown's park system.

He also greatly expanded the Allentown Airport, which was rededicated in 1929, saw construction of Tilghman Street Bridge, Americus Hotel and Pennsylvania Power & Light Buildings in Central Business District.

He declined to run for re-election in 1931 due to a health condition and was succeeded by Fred E. Lewis, who began his third term, after being mayor in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

During the postwar era, Hock acquired Convair Field from the War Assets Administration and developed it into Queen City Airport.

In 1957, it was Hock's idea to expand Allentown's St. Patrick's Day parade from a parochial observance to a citywide spectacle embracing the theme of brotherhood.

Both Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy led large campaign rallies during the 1960 Presidential Election on Hamilton Street.

Allentown was selected in 1963 as an "All-America City" and the 1962 Bicentennial celebration were highlights of his administration, marked by a 7-hour parade down Hamilton Street in July 1962, along with other celebratory events during 1962.

Also authorized late-night (9 pm) shopping close for Hamilton Street stores on Monday nights to help downtown merchants compete with the new Whitehall Mall.

During tenure as mayor, the city activated a 911 emergency dispatching system, established the police department's K-9 Corps, constructed Keck Park and initiated a citywide newspaper recycling program.

Still politically controversial as mayor, accomplishments included the introduction of 911 dialing, the first waste-recycling programs, new parks and fire stations, the extensions of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the Basin Street underpass, and Mayfair and Super Sunday events.

Returned to office in 1981 and in 1991 worked to convert the empty A&B meat factory and slaughterhouse at Hamilton and Front Streets into "Lehigh Landing", a park and museum complex.

In 1998, Heydt joined with the Allentown Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) to renovate the vacant Lehigh Portland Cement building on Hamilton Street into a desperately-needed downtown campus for the Lehigh-Carbon Community College.

Term marked a series of disasters beyond his control – the collapse of Corporate Plaza, two record snowstorms, gas explosions on Wyoming Street and at Gross Towers.

[46] After putting Allentown back on a financial footing, his major initiative was the Central Business District Redevelopment project as a result of Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) legislation passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in 2009.

The NIZ resulted in millions of dollars being invested in Allentown and developments of large office buildings and apartment complexes in the main "Downtown" area.

[46] In the 2017 municipal general election, Allentown voters passed a ballot initiative to put a two-term limit on mayors, although Pawlowski was not affected due to a grandfather clause.

[57] O'Connell was defeated in the May 2021 Democratic primary election amid criticism for his response to the pandemic and a perception of declining quality of life during his tenure.