Ponce is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1692 and is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce is referred to as La Perla del Sur, La Ciudad Señorial, La Ciudad de las Quenepas; the city serves as the governmental seat of the autonomous municipality as well as the regional hub for various Government of Puerto Rico entities, such as the Judiciary of Puerto Rico. It is the regional center for various other Commonwealth and Federal Government agencies. Ponce is a principal city of both the Ponce Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Ponce-Yauco-Coamo Combined Statistical Area; the Municipality of Ponce the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce, is located in the southern coastal plain region of the island, south of Adjuntas and Jayuya. The municipality has a total of 31 barrios, including 19 outside the city's urban area and 12 in the urban area of the city.

The historic Ponce Pueblo district, located in the downtown area of the city, is shared by several of the downtown barrios, is located three miles inland from the shores of the Caribbean. The municipality of Ponce is the second largest in Puerto Rico by land area, it was the first in Puerto Rico to obtain its autonomy, becoming the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce in 1992; the region of what is now Ponce belonged to the Taíno Guaynia region, which stretched along the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Agüeybaná, a cacique who led the region, was among those who greeted Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León when he came to the island in 1508. Archaeological findings have identified four sites within the municipality of Ponce with archaeological significance: Canas, Caracoles, El Bronce. During the first years of the colonization, Spanish families started settling around the Jacaguas River, in the south of the island. For security reasons, these families moved to the banks of the Rio Portugués called Baramaya.

Starting around 1646 the whole area from the Rio Portugués to the Bay of Guayanilla was called Ponce. In 1670, a small chapel was raised in the middle of the small settlement and dedicated in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Among its earliest settlers were Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the Portuguese Don Pedro Rodríguez de Guzmán, from nearby San Germán. On 17 September 1692, the King of Spain Carlos II issued a Cédula Real converting the chapel into a parish, in so doing recognizing the small settlement as a hamlet, it is believed that Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, Juan Ponce de León's great-grandson, was instrumental in obtaining the royal permit to formalize the founding of the hamlet. Captains Enrique Salazar and Miguel del Toro were instrumental; the city is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. In the early 18th century Don Antonio Abad Rodriguez Berrios built a small chapel under the name of San Antonio Abad; the area would receive the name of San Antón, a important part of modern Ponce.

In 1712 the village was chartered as El Poblado de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Ponce. In the early 19th century, Ponce continued to be one of dozens of hamlets, its inhabitants survived by subsistence agriculture, cattle raising, maritime contraband with foreigners. Mayor José Benítez categorized the jurisdiction into cotos, criaderos, monterías, terrenos realengos. Cotos were lands awarded to residents as reward for their services to the king, they were developed into lands apt to be cultivated for agricultural use. Hatos were lands not granted to anyone in particular, but available for communal use where cattle could roam at will. Monterías were hilly areas located next to hatos were cattle could be reigned in or gathered together with the help of trained dogs. Criaderos were lands. Goats, pigs and mares were herded in criaderos. Terrenos realengos were lands. However, in the 1820s, three events changed the size of the town; the first of these events was the arrival of a significant number of white Francophones, fleeing the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804.

The effect of this mass migration was not felt until the 1820s. These French Creole entrepreneurs were attracted to the area because of its large flatlands, they came with enough capital and commercial connections to stimulate Ponce's sugarcane production and sales. Secondly and merchants migrated from various Latin American countries, they had migrated for better conditions, as they were leaving economic decline following the revolutions and disruption of societies as nations gained independence from Spain in the 1810s-1820s. Third, the Spanish Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 attracted numerous European immigrants to Puerto Rico, it encouraged any citizen of a country politically friendly to Spain to settle in Puerto Rico as long as they converted to the Catholic faith and agreed to work in the agricultural business. With such mass migrations, not only the size of the town was changed, but the character of its population was changed as well. Europeans, including many Protestants, immigrated from a variety of nations.

On 29 July 1848, as a result of this explosive growth, the Ponce hamlet was

The Tannery is a historic tannery building constructed by the colonial Moravians in Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. It is a limestone building built in 1761, is part of the Bethlehem Colonial Industrial Quarter, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The building is part of the Historic Moravian Bethlehem Historic District, designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 2012 and nominated to the U. S. Tentative List in 2016 for consideration to become a World Heritage Site; the Tannery was built as a small log structure in 1743 along the east side of the Grist Mill tail race. Leather was both an important material and a valuable commodity in early Bethlehem, making the need for the tannery all the greater and one of the most profitable industries, it supplied the necessary leather for shoemakers, harness makers, saddlers in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. As the community grew, so did the tanning operation, a larger, more permanent stone structure was built on the west side of the tail race in 1761.

It was constructed as a 35 ft. by 66 ft. five bay, three-story limestone building with a one-story attic, built in the German Colonial style of architecture. By the 1760s, the colonial Moravians processed 1000-2000 animal hides at the Tannery annually and produced a large variety of leather products such as clothing, shoes and machinery parts, it was one of their most profitable trades. When trade with England ended due to the American Revolution, the need for leather rose significantly. Leather boots, coats and saddles were in high demand for the Continental Army; the Tannery increased processed animal hides to an estimated 3000 annually. The Tannery was operated by the Moravians until 1829 and tanning ceased in 1873 due to the rising price of tanbark; the structure was converted into a multi-family dwelling and was used for various operations. The building deteriorated to the point of becoming a tenement house surrounded by an automobile junk yard. “It is interesting to note that, when the Tannery was constructed in 1761, the first floor would have been accessed by walking up steps rather than down as we do today.

Archaeological excavations found changes in the creek bank along with soil deposits around the Tannery, indicating heavy fill. These discoveries confirmed that the original level of the land was seven or eight feet lower than it is now, or about four feet lower than the current Tannery doorway opening.”The Tannery was restored between 1968–1971 by John Milner Associates as an historic site interpreting the 18th century tanning operations. After restoration was complete the building was open to the public for tours and educational programming from the late 1970s. Continued restoration from grants received allowed the opening of the vat room in 2001 which had not been accessible due to deterioration of the viewing platforms, it closed in 2004 due to damages from hurricane Ivan. The Tannery is owned by the city of Bethlehem with a long-term lease to Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, a 5013 non-profit organization; the building is not presently open to the public. In the 18th century turning animal hides into tanned leather was a lengthy, seven-step process that could take up to two years or longer.

The work required a great deal of strength. "In 1790, for example, David Gold gave up his job after several years because of what he described as a'weakness in his arms'. Most of the tanners in Bethlehem came directly from Germany."“First the hides had to be washed and trimmed. Next they were soaked in a lime solution for several weeks; the hides were soaked for many weeks in a ‘bating’ solution, a foul-smelling mixture of water and manure that neutralized any remaining lime and altered the chemical structure of the skin to make it more flexible. Next came the actual tanning step of immersing the hides in a vat filled with tanbark and its rich ‘liquor’ extra for six to twelve months. Afterwards the leather was beaten or fulled to make it more pliable and carefully dried. Soft, waterproof leathers with a smooth finish required further treatment by a currier.”Tanbark was an essential ingredient in the tanning process. Each hide required one to two times its weight in bark for proper tanning, with the tannery consuming 60 to 100 cords of tanbark annually.

Oak and hemlock barks were gathered in the spring and dried stored in a shed to protect from the rain until needed. The tanbark was reduced to a coarse powder at the tanbark mill using a contemporary German practice of bark stamping; this set the Moravians apart as most early American bark mills utilized animal-powered stone rollers to crush the bark. Tannery, Monocacy Creek vicinity, Northampton County, PA: 25 photos, 16 measured drawings, 2 photo caption pages, at Historic American Buildings Survey Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites official Tannery Page U. S. Tentative List: Moravian Church Settlements Library of Congress: Tannery, Monocacy Creek Vicinity, Northampton County, PA

Queenscliff is the terminal railway station of the Queenscliff branch line that branched off the main Warrnambool line near South Geelong in Victoria, Australia. The station was opened on 21 May 1879, the current station building constructed in 1881 and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register; the station was linked to Swan Island by a 3 foot gauge tramway for transport of goods between the years of 1886 and 1958. The station was closed to all Victorian Railways services on 6 November 1976. After this date, usage of the branch line was granted to the Bellarine Peninsula Railway who re-gauged part of the track to 3'6" and commenced tourist operations from the station in May 1979 to Laker's Siding, to Drysdale not long after; the section of the line between the Warnambool line at South Geelong and Drysdale is no longer serviceable and much of that track bed is now part of the Bellarine Rail Trail