Redoing The Redo

If it seems as if the street in front of your home, which was dug up last year, is being dug up again, that's because it is. UGI, which changed out metal pipes to plastic last year, has decided to distribute their gas with higher pressure. Last year's new plastic pipes were not sufficiently engineered to handle the increase. Do you find that reassuring?

A Creek Centered Park

In 1928, General Harry Trexler hired famed landscape architect, J. Franklin Meehan, to design Lehigh Parkway as a creek centered park. A defender of the current neglect, masquerading as conservation, accused me of wanting the park to look like a golf course. As it turns out, park planner Franklin Meehan, is mostly known as a golf course architect. The General wanted the creek totally accessible, both visually and physically, for the citizens of Allentown. Shown above, in the photograph circa 1950, is the picnic island with connecting bridge, and part of the boat landing. Over forty years ago a former park director took the bridge away, and the island is now overgrown. Also years ago, the boat landing was intentionally buried. This blog advocates to defend what remains of the traditional Lehigh Parkway, as a creek centered park for the people.

7th and Hamilton, 1942

6 Points At Parkway Entrance, Early 1940's

Mack Bulldog Features Boat Landing

The Mack Truck magazine, Bulldog, often featured scenes from Allentown's nationally recognized park system. Shown on this cover, from the early 1940s, is the Boat Landing. Buried over by a park director in the 1970's, it remained buried, until dug out by this blogger and friends in 2009.

The Boat Landing

Getting to the Boat Landing, for six year old boys who lived above the park in 1953, was quite an adventure. There were three other wonderful WPA structures to navigate on the journey. Unfortunately,  poor foresight by a previous park director has erased some of the WPA's monuments in Lehigh Parkway. As the postcard from the mid-50's above shows, the Boat Landing (my name for the structure) was a source of pride for the city and park system. It is located at the end of the park,  near Regency Apartments. I use the present tense because remnants of this edifice still exist,  buried under dirt and debris. Other attractions lost in that section of the park include the Spring Pond near the Robin Hood parking lot, and the bridge to the "Island", plus the mosaic inlaid benches which were on the island. ( Island halfway between parking lot and boat landing). Neither the Mayor or the Park Director knows that these centerpieces ever existed. These are irreplaceable architectural treasures well worth restoring.

reprinted from May, 2009, combining two posts  seeking help to  uncover this treasure after 50 years.