Jun 30, 2026

Growing Up Allentown


I'm a baby boomer. I was born at the end of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. 

On Saturdays, older kids would take us along on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8th Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to the shelter of our neighborhood.

reprinted from June of 2008

ADDENDUM JUNE 30, 2026:This post along with thirty five other baby boomer memories of Allentown comprise my book available at Amazon.
at

2 comments:

  1. Brent W. MollJune 30, 2026 at 4:47 PM

    I believe those homes are all government-designed and were built for the Consolodated-Vultee workers during World War II. They were built to a standard design when no new homes could be built otherwise due to rationing of construction material.

    That is also why the streets are named for the various aircraft types built by Vultee (Primarily for the Navy)

    The military was building a large number of training bases during the war and had first priority for construction material.

    ReplyDelete
  2. michael molovinskyJune 30, 2026 at 5:37 PM

    Brent@4:47:I'm not familiar with the construction restrictions you mention. I do know that most of the neighborhood was constructed in 1944, that Roscoe Jarrett was the primary RE agent involved, and the houses sold for about $7,300.

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS SELECTIVELY PUBLISHED. SIGNED COMMENTS GIVEN MORE LEEWAY. COMMENTS ONLY EXPRESS THE SUBMITTER'S OPINION, NOT THAT OF THE BLOGGER.