Hellertown, a village in Lower Saucon Township in Pennsylvania's Saucon Valley, was connected to Bethlehem and Philadelphia in 1857 when the North Pennsylvania Railroad was completed. The location of the railroad station became the focus of a dispute between Rudolphus Kent, who bought land from John A. Geisinger to create a new town called Hampton, and Rev. Samuel Hess, who wanted the station on his own property. Kent prevailed, but older Hellertown residents opposed him and his real estate venture failed. The railroad's arrival brought new business opportunities to Hellertown, where a tannery that had opened in the late 18th century operated until 1872 under new ownership, and where the Saucon Iron Company added two blast furnaces and ore mines, completing its first furnace in 1868 and its second in 1870 and employing about 350 workers at full capacity. Hellertown first used a small frame shanty as its depot until a brick building was erected in 1868, and the station became an important passenger and freight hub between Philadelphia and Bethlehem, with multiple tracks, kerosene-lit platforms, separate waiting rooms for men and women, potbelly stoves, and facilities for baggage, express shipments, and local freight. The route later became part of the Reading Company, which continued passenger service between Philadelphia and Bethlehem well into the 20th century, with Bethlehem as an important interchange with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. After the Reading Company went bankrupt in 1971, the Bethlehem branch was taken over in 1976 by Consolidated Rail Corporation, or ConRail, and commuter service to Bethlehem continued under contract to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority until plans announced in April 1981 led to service being cut back to Quakertown on July 1 and then to Lansdale in August. The site of the old Hellertown train station is now occupied by the Front Street Apartments, built in 1997.