Siegfried was located in Northampton County directly across the Lehigh River from Siegfried’s Bridge, a small village in Lehigh County now known as Cementon. Siegfried is one of three villages (Stemton and Newport were the others) that merged in 1902 to become the Borough of Alliance, whose name was changed in 1909 to the Borough of Northampton.

Located in a wide band of limestone that covers much of the lower half of Northampton County, Siegfried (named after its original settler, John Siegfried) became a center of cement production for the Lehigh Canal in 1830. Cement production in the area increased greatly in the 1870s after David O. Saylor successfully manufactured Portland cement for the first time in the United States at a kiln in Coplay in 1871. Portland cement – a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, and stucco – is the most common type of cement in general use around the world.

Cement consumption in the United States increased almost ten fold from 1890 to 1913. More than half of the country’s Portland cement came from kilns in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Even after the cement boom subsided, the Lehigh Valley remained the largest producer of Portland cement in the United States until 1970.