Allentown 1950

Sixty years ago downtown Allentown hummed. It was fueled by the vision of people who developed empires, not cookie cutter ideas from the National Magazines for Bureaucrats, like the arena. Shown here is the Transit Office and depot at the side of 8th and Hamilton. General Trexler had been a principle in the Trolley Company, which also built the 8th Street Bridge, to connect Allentown with points south, all the way to Philadelphia. In addition to being the terminal for the Philadelphia bound Liberty Bell, it also fed the merchants of Allentown with thousands of shoppers from its many Allentown routes. The shoppers now sit on the cold steel benches at the Lanta Detention Center on 7th Street, as the non-visionaries prepare to demolish the center of town, to build a monstrosity.

The light and shadows reveal that this is an early morning photo. In a few hours 8th and Hamilton (behind the trolley) would be clogged with shoppers                                                               reprinted from December 2011

Weigh In On 1948

1948 was a good year for Allentown and the Lehigh Valley. Mack Trucks, Lehigh Structural Steel, General Electric and almost all factories were going full steam. President Truman stopped by to give a speech. The Allentown Cardinals played the first game in their new ballpark, Breadon Field. The baby boom was going full tilt:



The school district unveiled Lehigh Parkway and Midway Manor Elementary Schools and the new professional style football stadium. Donald Hock was Mayor, and although the last beer was being brewed on Lawrence Street at Daeufer Brewery, the Paddock joined many new restaurants opening that year. Photo's from Dorney Park in 1948.

reprinted from July 2009

2019 In Allentown

Ed Pawlowski is in the second year of his fourth term, an unprecedented record in Pennsylvania. Although people refer to him as the little Daley, a reference to his Chicago roots, he has never gained support outside of the Democratic stronghold of Allentown, which he rules without debate. The bloom is off the rose at the arena; 2018  showed only twenty three events beside the home hockey games, and most of them were poorly attended. The remaining merchants, in the adjoining blocks, resentfully refer to it as The Dead Zone. Although the new arena complex manager, and the new police chief, promise to work together to better safeguard the patrons upon departing, suburbanites continue to fear the place, and rightfully so. The Reilly Apartment Tower, once conceived as a hotel before being built in 2013, is receiving the national HUD award for providing in house daycare for single mothers. Cynthia Mota, president of City Council, promises to work with Aqua America about the water rates, currently highest in United States. City Center Two, vacant since being constructed in 2014, will become the new City Hall in 2020. In separate studies, prepared by both the Administration and City Council, taxpayers are expected to realize significant savings by the move. The current City Hall will become administrative offices for the Lehigh County Prison, one of the fastest growing correction institutions in the country.

Urban Renewal and These History Posts

Urban renewal projects are nothing new to Allentown. Every couple decades some Mayor thinks he has a brighter idea. In a previous post, I showed the historic Lehigh and Union Street neighborhood, totally destroyed by city planners. Today, an under used Bank calling center sits awkwardly alone on that Lehigh Street hill. The picture above shows another hill of merchants and residents, fed to a mayor's bulldozer. The picture is from 1953, and shows Hamilton Street, from Penn Street down toward the railroad stations. At that time we still had two stations, The Lehigh Valley Railroad and The New Jersey Central. The current closed bar and restaurant occupies the Jersey Central. Everything on Hamilton Street, west of the bridge over the Jordan creek, with the exception of the Post Office, was demolished up to Fifth Street. Government Center would be built on the north side of the street, and a new hotel on the south, to accommodate the many anticipated visitors. Recently we had to remove and replace the facade of the county courthouse, which leaked since it was constructed. The hotel is now a rooming house.

Unannounced plans are underway for a new hotel to service anticipated visitors to Pawlowski's Palace of Sports. It will be up to some future blogger to document how that hotel becomes a rooming house.

reprinted from March 2012                                                                                                         UPDATE:In the time since this blog was first written, we have learned that the new arena hotel may well end up being apartments instead, an option which even the arena students didn't know about.  To those who think that these history posts have no relevance to today's Allentown, or that our esteemed leadership is reinventing the wheel,  your blind support  is indeed appreciated at City Hall.

Allentown Post Office

In the 1930's, the "New Deal" was good to Allentown. As I noted on earlier posts, our park system was enriched by monumental stone construction under the WPA. We also received one of the architectural gems of our area, the magnificent art deco post office. Constructed during 1933-34, no detail was spared in making the lobby an ageless classic. The floor is adorned with handmade Mercer tiles from Doylestown. Muralist Gifford Reynolds Beal worked thru 1939 portraying the Valley's cultural and industrial history. This incredible 74 year old photograph is the contractor's documentation of the project's progress. The back of the photo states; Taken Sept 1 - 34 showing lobby, floor, screens, desks, completed & fixtures hung

The photograph will enlarge when clicked.

Reprinted for January is History Month

The Tracks of Allentown

Up to the early 1950's, you pretty much drove over tracks wherever you went in Allentown. While the trolleys moved the people, the Lehigh Valley Railroad freight cars moved the materials in and out of our factories. Shown above, the Lehigh Valley Transit trolley moves across the former steel Hamilton Street Bridge. The huge UGI gas tank can be seen on Union Street. While the trolleys gave way to buses by 1953, the freight rail spurs would tarry on for two more decades.