Allentown, The Lehigh Valley's Humpty Dumpty

The Molovinsky entourage entered Easton about 4:45 Sunday evening. Although early for dinner,  there was already sizable activity in center square and the nearby restaurants.  The 64 thousand dollar question,  or more precisely, the $1billion dollar question,  is how can little Easton outperform Allentown when the latter has benefitted from the largest incentive program in state history?

I'm afraid I can't give Sal credit.  His bus terminal/parking deck is a bigger abomination than I predicted. Truth is because nothing else was done, Easton has retained its historical character, and the charm that conveys.  People want some ambience.  It can be authentic, such as historic Bethlehem,  or it can be completely fabricated, such as the Promenade in Saucon.  But Allentown has nothing, except new buildings, devoid of any character.  Before Reilly builds another thing, he should consider hiring an architectural consultant.

Growing Up Allentown

Life in Allentown during the 1950's was pretty easy, compared to now a days. Whether you were white or blue collar, there were plenty of jobs. Whether you lived in the West End or center city, all the neighborhoods were clean, well maintained and relatively crime free. The school system was the envy of the county, and people finagled to get their children enrolled in it. Allentown High School had championship teams in multiple sports, and the football stadium was one of the most lavish high school stadiums in the country. The park system was the subject of numerous picture postcards. Likewise, downtown was widely known, with Hess's being a destination. All the above characterists would stay in place throughout the 1960's, into the early 70's.

I bill this blog as the intersection of politics and history in Allentown, and the greater Lehigh Valley. Although, I will continue to speak out on current events of concern, I suspect that this page will turn more and more to history. Perhaps nostalgia is so appealing because the current reality is so disillusioning. 

Although, my archive of older Allentown pictures is extensive, I invited Ozzie and Harriet Nelson to illustrate this post.

Lehigh Parkway's Forgotten Island

Director Harms Lehigh Parkway
February 04, 1993|The Morning Call
To the Editor:

The WPA in the 1930s created a three-acre island by diverting water from the Little Lehigh Creek. The island had remained a source of joy for birders, naturalists, and nondescript strollers. No one foresaw Marushak arriving on the scene with wrecking tools to rip up the bridge, terminating public access to the island. Three masonry piers remain in place. Also remaining are 12 discarded auto tires gathering silt in the small stream.

BERT LUCKENBACH
ALLENTOWN (February 4, 1993)

20 years later......
Most people have long ago forgotten that there was a bridge to the island, although the stone piers still remain, obscured by overgrowth. The curved wall and landing of the Boat Landing, shown in the lower right of the photograph, are buried. In 2009, with help from others who appreciate our treasured parks, I had the privilege to rescue the steps which lead to the landing.  Over the decades, the debris and silt mentioned above has enlarged the island, almost to the boat landing.  This Saturday, April 6, in conjunction with Friends of The Parks, I will conduct a tour of current and former WPA sites remaining in Lehigh Parkway. 

Michael Molovinsky

 reprinted from April of 2013

Hurricane Diane, 1955

Hurricane Diane hit the Lehigh Valley in August of 1955. Living in Little Lehigh Manor, I remember huddling in the house, while the metal garbage cans of the era flew around the neighborhood. My father, whose meat market was on Union Street by the Lehigh River, worked throughout the night. Fortunately for him, his market had an second floor backup cooler, and a small freight elevator. While the retail business district on Hamilton Street is elevated enough to be unaffected from flooding, center city Easton was devastated by the Delaware. The next morning was rather surreal for a nine year old boy. A large willow tree on the corner of Lehigh Parkway South and Catalina Ave. was lying on it's side. Although the Little Lehigh receded quickly, the park road and basin had been flooded. Diane remains a record in flooding and damage. Let us hope it remains that way.

reprinted from August 2011

photo from August 1955. Delaware rising up Northampton Street in Easton.

Allentown, What a revoltin' development

There are two articles in the paper that have me shaking my head.  One is that the mayor may escape prosecution,  because of the recent supreme court case outlining what the new legal threshold is for corruption. I personally don't have much attitude about Pawlowski's situation, one way or the other. But, when we think about how much time and effort was taken, not counting the collateral charges filed against others, we can just see our taxdollars sucking up in the vortex of government.

Talking about evaporating taxdollars, we learn that it will cost us a $quarter million to have the school superintendent not work. I noticed the news reports that the school board approved Mayo's sabbatical. The reporters know full well that Mayo didn't request this situation, it was forced upon him by the school board. I enjoy being a blogger, and not having to mince my words.

The photograph shown above, and the post title,  are inside jokes for the older baby boomers.

Forsaking General Harry Trexler

In 1928, Harry Trexler hired  Philadelphia's prestigious landscape firm Meehan and Company to design the park system for Allentown. When the depression struck the next year, the plans were put on hold. However, when Roosevelt announced the WPA in mid 1930's, because of those plans, Allentown was shovel ready. Thousands of men worked throughout Allentown's new parks, creating masterpieces that normally would have taken fifty years to build, and cost untold millions of dollars. Allentown ended up with an iconic park system, virtual picture postcards, which lured tourists here for the next 75 years.

In 2006, Ed Pawlowski became major, combined the park and recreation departments, and started hiring directors from out of town with a background in recreation. Although, not one thing was done for the traditional park system, we started buying whole catalogs of playground equipment. We have been named Play City of the country by the playground equipment manufactures association. Through my advocating, Karen El-Chaar from Friends Of the Parks, was able to secure a grant from the Trexler Trust to restore the steps at Fountain Park. I was able to prevail upon the current park director, Lindsay Taylor, to allow the masons to also repair the stairwell at Union Terrace. The Parkway wall in now being repaired, but only because it's necessary in able to open the road.

Park strategy, aside from recreation, is now being decided by the Wildlands Conservancy. The Conservancy has been instituting current environmental fashion, even if it's not site specific to Allentown. Consequently, the park streams have become riparian buffer zones, even though the storm runoff is piped directly into the streams, and bypasses the buffers. The WPA ornamental dam has have been demolished, even though the streams are stocked from General Trexler's fish hatchery. Even the fish hatchery dam, which regulated the amount of water entering the fish ponds, was demolished, resulting in a massive fish kill.

What is most discouraging in my battle to preserve the icons of our traditional park system is that the Wildlands Conservancy is being funded by the Trexler Trust.  Although,  sacred cows and good old boy networks working together is nothing new, how ironic that the Trust is funding the main reason that Harry Trexler's park designs are now being ignored and neglected.

For decades the park system was a favorite scene on souvenir postcards from Allentown.