William Allen High School

William Allen High School, often referred to as Allen High School or simply Allen, is one of two large, urban public high schools of the Allentown School District in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The school provides public education for grades 9 through 12. William Allen High School is located at 106 N. 17th Street in Allentown. It serves students from center city and the city's westside. The city's other public high school, Dieruff High School, serves students from Allentown's eastern and southern sections. Until Dieruff's opening in 1959, William Allen High School was known as Allentown High School. As of the 2022–23 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,852 students, according to National Center for Education Statistics data. High school students may choose to attend Lehigh Career and Technical Institute for vocational training in the trades. The Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit, IU21, provides the Allentown School District with a wide variety of services like specialized education for disabled students and hearing, speech and visual disability services and professional development for staff and faculty. In 2015, the school district opened Building 21 Allentown as an experimental high school which focuses on building passion among students through career exploration. William Allen High School is named in honor of William Allen, who founded Allentown in 1762, and also served as a mayor of Philadelphia and chief justice during the colonial era Province of Pennsylvania.

William Allen High School was established in 1858 by R. W. McAlpine, who took a group of 14 older students to the Garber Horne Building, formerly the home of the North American Homeopathic School of Healing Arts at South Penn Street, near the present Allentown School District Administration Building. This was the beginning of what was then called Allentown High School, a name it retained until 1858. Primary and secondary education originally were both taught in the school. The first class was fourteen pupils, equally divided by boys and girls. In 1859, a separate high school was established by a vote of 6 to 2, one for boys and one for girls. The second school was located at the Presbyterian Sunday School. Augustus Armagnac was named teacher for the male students, and Hannah L. Romig for the female students. Allentown High School began its football program in 1896. But the team did not have a designated practice field and used any available open field instead. On September 26, 1928, A. Jack Coffield, an Allentown High School football player, died during a football practice. The following year, in September 1929, the A. Jack Coffield Stadium was opened west of the main building in Coffield's honor. The 15,000 seat capacity Coffield Stadium was the first permanent home for the Allentown High School football team. Over six years, from 1941 to 1946, the Allentown High School team went 60 3 3, outscoring the opposition 1,801 points to 239. Forty of Allentown High School's sixty wins were by shutouts. The Hunsicker Building, located in the 300 Block of North Sixth Street, was used for Honors classes; In 2010, a new 9th grade center was built on the former St. Cloud Building site at the corner of Linden and St. Cloud streets. It was then dedicated as the "Clifford S. Bartholomew Building." In 2010 and 2011, the largest and most expensive renovation in the school's history was undertaken, including seven other campus buildings. These renovations were made while maintaining the architectural features in the older structures. All the remaining buildings were gutted, and each received new walls, ceilings, floors, windows, paint, doors, stairwells, and air conditioning throughout all seven buildings. New dance studios were constructed on the first floor of the Annex Building 2 with proper floors and mats. Art rooms, chorus, and band facilities were constructed in the Linden Buildings 6 and 7. Art Labs were equipped with proper tables, lighting, and technologies. In the other buildings, renovations include upgraded science lab equipment, new tables in the cafeterias, a multimedia center, upgrades in the black box theater, hundreds of new and refurbished classroom spaces, and elevators were installed in buildings that to provide accessible facilities for the disabled. As part of the major renovation, $1 million was spent on the auditorium's upgrading, which includes new curtains, seating, an imported stretched oil on canvas portrait above the stage, restoration of historic plasterwork that adorns the walls and ceilings, and a 15 ft stage extension. Lighting and sound upgrades include an ETC lighting console with two dimming cabinets and 20 led color changing border light alternatives, and a custom integrated simple and front of house sound system with an independently dedicated SFX system and Yamaha Ls9 console with iPad for remote mixing. As one patron said, "Parkland may have a nice theater, but this is class."

William Allen is one of 18 large high schools competing in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, one of the nation's premier athletic divisions. The school plays its home football and some of its soccer games at J. Birney Crum Stadium, a 15,000 capacity stadium in Allentown, which is the largest high school football stadium in the Mid Atlantic U. S. Most of its indoor athletics are played in the school's J. Milo Sewards Gymnasium. The school's primary athletic rivalry is with cross town Dieruff High School.

The William Allen Theater Department performs an annual fall drama and spring musical.

The Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs, a member of the now defunct United States Basketball League, played their home games in William Allen's gymnasium for the totality of the league's existence from 1999 to 2006.