Talk:Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania

Dispute origin of Whitehall's name
The disputed, unsourced text claims the township's name originated from whitewash that had been applied to Lynford Lardner's hunting lodge, Grouse Hall. On its surface, this sounds unlikely. Some names that date to the 1700s - Egypt, for example - had colorful origins, but most either honored an early settler or founder as with the village of Mickleys and city of Allentown, was based on location as with Forks Township (forks of the Delaware River), was derived from the Bible as with the city of Bethlehem, or mirrored the name of a location in England which could be the case with Whitehall Township.

I searched Roberts' 1914 History of Lehigh County and found references to Lardner and Grouse Hall but nothing related to either Whitehall's name or the whitewash story. On the other hand, the municipality's website does repeat the story, which lends some credence to it. Correct or not, this web page could be used as a legitimate reference.

According to Roberts, the hunting lodge was built in the late 1740s in Wennersville, a village in South Whitehall (then Whitehall Township, Northampton County), although its specific location is uncertain. The township was first settled in the 1730s and was incorporated in 1753, which makes the whitewash claim possible. It should also be noted, however, that in 1740 Lardner emigrated to Pennsylvania from London, which has a district and road named Whitehall, so the coincidence makes the whitewash story seem a bit far-fetched. In 1746, Lardner, who was close to the Penn family, moved to Springfield Township outside Philadelphia and built his lodge the next year. Note also that Lardner only hunted here and never lived in Whitehall.

None of this confirms or negates the theory, so I applied the dispute template to encourage research on pinning down the name's origin. However, if a citation is applied for whatever reason (pro or con), I would not object to the removal of the dispute template. Should that happen, I would appreciate a "ping" to be informed of the edit. Just add the following below - @Allreet - along with any comment you wish. Thank you. Allreet (talk) 21:26, 20 July 2022 (UTC)