Welcome To The Vendig

In 1933, with the end of Prohibition, my grandparents(maternal) started operating the Vendig Hotel. They were the working partners, another immigrant family, here longer, were the silent backers. The hotel was directly across from the current Main Street Depot Restaurant in Bethlehem, which was the old New Jersey Line Terminal. With my grandmother cooking, they became well known for crab cakes and other shelled seafood. What wasn't known, was that she was strictly kosher, and never even tasted anything she prepared. As some may recall, my grandparents came from Hungarian Transylvania (now Romania) in the early 20's. Family lore* says Bela Lugosi visited the hotel. Lugosi was born in the same area of then Hungary, and started his acting career playing Jesus in Passion Plays. In 1931, after immigrating to America years earlier, he got his big break playing Dracula. Typecast as a villain, Lugosi was reduced in later years to drug addiction and playing in low budget monster films. He died in the mid 50's and was buried in his Dracula cape.

* My surviving uncle, who as a boy lived above the hotel, has no recollection of Lugosi. The partner families would later merge through marriage and 40 years later come to own the old vaudeville theater in South Bethlehem known as The Globe. It too is gone.                                                      reprinted from June of 2008

The Morning Call Can't Spell Molovinsky

Out of frustration, J.B. and Kathleen Reilly have stopped reading the political blogs that snidely refer to downtown Allentown as Reillyville or Reillytown, so writes Scott Kraus and Matt Assad in today's feature story. Although a large portion of the article defends against criticism from this blog, including the phrases Reillyville and Reillytown, reporters and editors have once again chosen to not give attribution to molovinsky on allentown. Although perhaps J.B. has stopped reading this blog, I know that Kraus and Assad are reading these words: So boys, here's the biggie you missed today. You forgot to mention that the City gave Reilly $20 million (loaned from National Penn) in seed money, with no specifications, which he used to buy those 32 properties for $15.1 million. I say the City, because the loan was made even before the NIZ Authority was formed. You forgot to mention that some of the owners displaced by Reilly's buying spree felt intimidated, supposedly even including the possibility of eminent domain. Although you keep parroting Pawlowski's premise of risk on Reilly's part, the only real risk was ours. Although you have presented a defense against all the apparent connections, the fact remains that we now have Reillyville.
UPDATE: Kraus and Assad write; records show he(Reilly) didn't buy his first new property until March 2011 — three months after the new downtown NIZ map was adopted, and a week after the city publicly announced it was shifting the arena downtown. Public records refer to deed transfers, but when were the Agreements of Sale signed? Reilly wonders why other developers are not taking advantage of the NIZ.  Perhaps because Reilly has already purchased all the adjoining blocks? Perhaps because they are not assured that their project will be granted the same NIZ Authority approval, necessary for  the tax debt funding, being enjoyed by Reilly?  

Cliffsmanship vs. Disingenuity

At Tom Muller's press conference announcing his candidacy for County Executive, he said he created a word, Cliffsmanship, to describe the dreaded reform slate of commissioners. I have a hard enough time using existing words properly, but I do know disingenuous when I hear it. Muller said he isn't interested in the national debate on spending, that's an issue for our representatives in Washington. However, supposedly he was interested enough in the national discussion to change parties back in May. Speaking of last spring, here's his story back then: Cunningham indicated today he would choose Thomas Muller, the county's director of administration. Muller is a Republican, so he would not be eligible for the permanent job, and said he would not be interested in it anyway. After that statement, Tommy apparently scampered down to the lower level of Government Center and changed his voter registration. He will now be negotiating with the County unions as a Democratic candidate for Executive; Donny Cunningham the Second.

A Personal Journey

I was at a party where the host recently acquired a lawn sculpture. Unknown to him, a section of it was comprised of an old Jewish tombstone, of a wife and mother who died at the age of 25 in 1918. It's a beautiful carving of a branch less tree trunk, symbolizing a life ended prematurely. I became concerned as to where this stone had come from. Who would know if their great-grandmother's stone was taken?
I had no idea where my great-grandmother was buried. I searched for this young woman's grave. Finally, Rabbi Juda directed me to the old Agudath Achim Cemetery in Fountain Hill. There I found the woman, M. Azrilian, with a new grave marker. Next to her lies Jeannie Molovinsky, my great-grandmother. 
My thanks to Rabbi Juda and M. Azrilian (1893-1918)

I wrote the above piece on July 18, 1997. In my search for M. Azrilian, I discovered Mt. Sinai Cemetery inside Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh St., subject of one my early posts. The photograph above is the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem.                                                                           reprinted from 2008                                                                                                                     UPDATE:   My grandfather came to Allentown as a young man in 1893. After working and saving for a number of years, he brought his parents over from the Old Country. The former synagogue on 2nd. Street had just acquired their cemetery off Fullerton Avenue when his mother died. Jewish tradition dictated that a man was the first burial in a new cemetery, so she was buried in an old Jewish Cemetery on Fountain Hill. Several years later her husband, my great grandfather, was hit in the head with a pipe and killed while being robbed on Basin Street. He is buried on Fullerton Avenue.

Don Cunningham the Second

I always had an affinity for older objects and construction, they tended to be overbuilt. They were built to last, and past the test of time. New things are engineered for cost and landfills. Allentown will never again see the likes of the former multiple stone arch bridge which spanned the Jordan Creek on Linden Street. When Don Cunningham ran for County Executive in 2005, eight county bridges were deemed unsound by state inspectors, including the Linden Street Bridge. I learned from a source, high up in the new bridge project, that the historic bridge could have been repaired at a fraction of the cost of the new concrete slab monstrosity now in it's place. However, that would have interfered with Cunningham's plan for a ribbon cutting. Cunningham, and his project manager, Glenn Solt, went into the bridge business. They have already replaced fifteen bridges, seven of which didn't need replacing. They also want to replace the historic stone arch Reading Road (Walnut Street) Bridge by Union Terrace (Daddona Park). Yesterday, flanked by Ed Pawlowski and other members of the local Democratic Machine, Tom Muller announced his candidacy for County Executive. Muller was Cunningham's top administrator, and architect of the reassessment. Problem with the reassessment is that real estate prices have dropped so dramatically in the last seven years, that the values are very close to the 1990 previous assessments. Muller didn't have the flexibility to realize that market changes made the new assessments unnecessary. Yesterday, he also praised the unnecessary bridge replacement business. He's a bureaucrat straight through, apparently void of creative thought. Muller thinks that if something has been planned for years, you do it, even if circumstances change. He thinks that if the money worked it way down the tubes through the years, you spend it, even if the project is no longer relevant. Now, if only he had Cunningham's smile and played the guitar.                                                                                                                      UPDATE: I did not attend Muller's press conference yesterday, but Bernie O'Hare did. Bernie thought that Cunningham could walk on water, and will also try and sell you on Cunningham the Second. Today Bernie reports on Muller's speech, video records Muller's speech and prints Muller's speech.

A Blog and a Cemetery

About ten years ago, I began searching for the grave of a young Jewish woman, who died around 1900. Among several Jewish cemeteries no longer in use, I searched Mt. Sinai, a small section of the sprawling Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh Street, just west of the 8th Street Bridge. The cemetery is the history of Allentown past, including the graves of Harry Trexler, John Leh, and Jack Mack. As one proceeded deeper into the cemetery, away from sight on Lehigh Street, conditions worsened. As is the case with many old cemeteries, fees paid for perpetual care, 100 years ago, were long gone. Complicating the situation, the current private operator wasn't particularly assessable. In addition to extended family members upset about conditions, the situation was compounded by his refusal, with few exceptions, to allow private upkeep. My early posts on the situation drew response and phone calls from people with no interest in local political blogs; They were just exasperated relatives, with a family member buried long ago at Fairview. After beginning a series of posts, and letters to the editor, I prevailed upon The Morning Call to write a story one year later. The Call's story appeared on August 11, 2008. Within two weeks, the cemetery operator agreed to a public meeting I had organized at a local church. Arrangements were made between the operator and several parties. As with several of Allentown's older cemeteries, the issue of maintenance will be ongoing. This would be a worthwhile project for City Hall.