Temporary Inconvenience

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 July of 2011 

UPDATE JANUARY 11, 2022: When I wrote the above post over a decade ago, I didn't foresee the wholesale destruction of the mercantile district into an urban office park. I did however report that the office park was being essentially owned by one man. After J.B. Reilly dominated the NIZ office park,  that legislation was relaxed to also allow his apartment complexes. While those apartments were hyped for young office workers by the Morning Call, reports on the ground indicate a less affluent clientele. That tenant base, for better or worse, will determine the success or failure of this latest urban redevelopment in Allentown.

Allentown Or Zombietown?

When I think back to the excitement and pride which was Allentown this time of year, back in the day, I cringe at what we have become. Although there's a little buzz about the arena, when you divide the state taxes diverted by the people who will attend, it's a very expensive ticket. Circumstances have conspired against Allentown; Demographically, center city keeps becoming poorer. We have become a one party town, not benefiting by a meaningful civic discourse. What was once a powerful local newspaper is now in an idle mode, waiting for another consequence of corporate takeover. This blog will continue to write about both history and politics, but will never blend them together into some sort of artificial smoothie.

above reprinted from December of 2013

UPDATE JANUARY 10, 2022: Our new mayor claims to be excited about Allentown having a majority of women on city council.  While I have no problem with their gender, I'm very nervous about their disposition.  One of the women, Ce-Ce Gerlach, participated in the march to defund the police. Another one, Cynthia Mota, worked for Hasshan Batts, whose organization would most likely receive any diverted funds. Batts writes...

Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley is a Black-led, anti-racist, liberation-based grassroots organization focused on healing and wellness through leadership development, violence prevention and reentry, racial justice and health equity and community capacity building. 

I applaud Matt Tuerk's diplomacy, but I can only hope for the sake of Allentown that he realizes that rather than defund or divert police funding, the police department needs to be bolstered.

Jennie Molovinsky Was A Quiet Neighbor

For nearly a hundred years the Wenz Memorial Company had a tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton.  Their parcel extended from Hamilton Street back to Walnut Street, across from the home of former mayor Joe Daddona.   Years ago, large granite slabs would be delivered by railroad, using the the Barber Quarry spur route.  During the Phil Berman era,  the facilities were also used to produce large stone sculptures.  Behind the office and production building, most of the property was used for storage of tombstones.  Some of the stones were samples of their handiwork, and others were old stones that had been replaced with new ones, by family members.  Such was the case with my great grandmother's first stone, which has laid at Wenz's for several decades.  The row houses and their front porches on S. Lafayette Street faced this portion of Wenz's, and it was very quiet, indeed.

Some readers may have noticed that Wenz's has been demolished, and the parcel will now contain a bank,  Dunkin Donut, and Woody's Sport Bar.  The residents of Lafayette Street,  experiencing complete quietness for all these years, attended the zoning hearing as objectors.  Their previous view, a dark, quiet lot, would now be replaced with a lit parking lot, with bar patrons coming and going.  Although I will not comment on the zoning issues,  residents were supposedly told by the zoners that the development would improve their quality of life.  It's one thing to have the quality of your life degraded,  it's another to have your intelligence insulted, to boot.  Perhaps the zoners need some training in sensitivity.

reprinted from May of 2016

Jenni Molovinsky Still Teaching Me History

Many years ago my advocacy for Fairview Cemetery resulted from a search for the grave of a young Jewish woman who died in 1913.  During the search I learned about Mt. Sinai, the small Jewish portion of Fairview.  The search ended on Fountain Hill, where I inadvertently also found the grave of my great grandmother, Jenni Molovinsky, buried at Agudas Achim's cemetery.  

Mt. Sinai predated the synagogues in Allentown, and the men's society which founded it was a precursor to the current Kenneth Israel Congregation, which now has its cemetery on Walbert Ave. 

Another Jewish Fraternal organization, the Emil Zola I.O.B.A. of Allentown, also established a cemetery on Fountain Hill.  Zola was a French writer who championed Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew falsely accused of treason in 1894.  The lodge established a burial ground on Fountain Hill in 1898,  near the other Jewish cemetery where Jenni Molovinsky was buried in 1913.

photocredit: J. Nasta

Allentown Becomes A Monarchy

Park and Shop Lots

Downtown Allentown boomed for about 100 years. During the prosperity years following World War II, the two car family emerged. Several business leaders of Allentown realized both the parking problem and the potential to enhance sales. Park and Shop was begun by Harvey Farr, Donald Miller and John Leh. The current small parking deck at 10th and Hamilton, above the current uptown police substation, was the first deck in the country. To make the parking lots, shown in the postcard above, houses were purchased and torn down. Although the gentlemen mentioned in this article profited from their influence, they always provided solutions for the betterment of the community. They seemed to be a benevolent oligarchy. As the viability of the Park And Shop enterprise declined along with the intercity shopping, The Allentown Parking Authority was conveniently formed by local politicians, and it purchased the lots using Municipal bonds; The process allowed the aforementioned gentleman to land on their feet, in a downward market.

Flash ahead thirty five years to another downward market, and we have one gentleman, J.B. Reilly, buying up center-city with municipal bonds backed by state taxes. Reilly has purchased far more property than ever owned by Park and Shop. He has purchased virtually the four square blocks surrounding the arena, a significant portion of the Neighborhood Improvement Zone(NIZ). Again the process was facilitated by our elected officials. Let us hope that the new monarchy will be as benevolent as the old oligarchy.

reprinted from November of 2012

The Wagon Trail

Most of Lehigh Parkway lies in a deep ravine. The slope up to Lehigh Parkway South, across the creek from Robin Hood, is very steep, about 60 degrees. Unknown to many people, there is a diagonal trail on part of the slope, which comes out halfway up the hill behind the Stone and Log House.

We kids, who grew up in the Parkway, called it the Wagon Trail. I believe it was part of the Kemmerer Farm (Stone and Log House), which dates back to the late 1770's. In the 1950's, the foundation of a small kiln was still visible on the trail. The subsequent years had not been kind to the old trail,  and it is no longer maintained by the Park Department. About halfway between it's entrance and exit on the hill, the trail has been blocked by a large fallen tree. People had dumped debris on the trail, and it remained there for years.

In April of 2010, I organized a cleanup.  The park director at the time cooperated on the project. I agreed that no power tools would be used, and he arranged for the city to pick up the rubbish.

It is my hope that the new administration will realize that our parks are more than just space to cram more recreational gimmicks.  They are steeped in history, and places where children can explore.

reprinted from previous years