The Robin Hood Bridge

I grew up in Little Lehigh Manor, the red brick twins above Lehigh Parkway's south ridge. When I played in the park, the WPA structures were kept in pristine condition, they were the pride of Allentown. On Hamilton Street you could purchase picture postcards of the parks and its various structures. Among the available cards was the one shown above of the Robin Hood Bridge. This crowning glory of Lehigh Parkway was completed in 1941. Its curved stone end piers, and its two oval middle piers, were designed to complement and mirror the long stone entrance wall into the park.

Since 2013, the bridge has been despoiled with the rubble of the little dam built to complement the bridge. Broken concrete from the former little dam was piled around the beautiful stone piers, turning a beautiful sight into an eyesore. It certainly would never grace a picture postcard in its current sad state.

Removing that rubble should not be a big chore for a city which once graced picture postcards sent around the country.

The Lost Beauty Of Lehigh Parkway

                                                                         photography by Tami Quigley

This beautiful photograph was taken by Tami Quigley last fall. This classic view of the stone piers, rising out of the Little Lehigh, has been inspiring photographers and artists for over 70 years. I have picture postcards of the same view. The stone piers are now surrounded by the concrete rubble of the former dam. Although the rapids still provide some sound and view, the portion of beauty and magic has been reduced in half. The new park director may have set a record in park degradation. Although only here for a matter of weeks, before even having seen the whole park, he agreed and recommended that the Robin Hood Dam be demolished. Piling its rubble by the stone piers is salt in the wound of our lost beauty.

photograph by Tami Quigley

above reprinted from October of 2013

ADDENDUM MARCH 8, 2022: Yesterday, I started my Restore The Beauty campaign to have the city remove the rubble which was dumped around the stone piers of the Robin Hood Bridge.  This bridge was designed to complement the iconic stone work along the park entrance road, leading down to the bridge. When the dam was demolished in 2013, the Wildlands Conservancy saved both hauling and landfill fees by piling the debris around the piers. At that time, both the mayor and his new from out of town park director, weren't native Allentonians, and didn't appreciate the park's significance to the city. 

Principals in the administration kindly did get back to me about yesterday's post, and expressed concern.  However, a funny thing happened to me in the nine years since 2013... I've gotten older, and have much less patience with studies looking into the matter.

Restore The Beauty

I read with interest about a dam north of Allentown that was demolished. The group who removed said...

“The dam and reservoir were cherished by many people in the local community and an important part of.... history. We want to make sure its story is preserved.”

When I fought unsecessfually to save the Robin Hood Dam in Lehigh Parkway, the park director at the time proposed replacing the dam with signage. There is such a fading sign at the former dam site on the Monocacy Creek in downtown Bethlehem. While I declined his offer for a sign instead of the dam, this post is to announce my new WPA project... I will champion to have the city restore the Robin Hood Bridge piers to their previous scenic state, before being despoiled by the broken dam rubble. This rubble was placed there by the Wildlands Conservancy, when they demolished the dam. Demolishing the dam was a crime, but making the previously beautiful bridge piers ugly was a sin.

The rubble will have to be removed carefully, as not to damage the piers or their foundation. Future Allentonians deserve the beautiful vista the bridge once provided, not the ugliness left by the dam's destruction.

As Allentown Turns

Linden Street is reduced to one lane today, as a private contractor installs stencils on the street for the bike lane. I had forgotten about this idiotic plan. Let us hope that the projections for the arena's success are more realistic than their vision for the bike lane's use. Also observed on my patrol today was the unbelievably slow progress of the 15th Street Bridge project. More concrete and steel is completed in one day on the arena and City Center buildings, than has yet to be completed on the bridge. The entire southside of Allentown remains prisoner to misplaced priorities. Talking of misplaced priorities, yesterday the Administration applauded itself for starting the eastside fire house, a year and half late.

UPDATE: ABOUT THIS POSTCARD- Earlier this week I used a postcard of Lehigh Parkway in the Give A Damn, Save A Dam post.  Both cards have a similar coloration and were photographed by Harold Becraft in the early 1950's.  Becraft was a photographer from Suffern N.Y.,  who produced many of the images used in the postcards of Allentown's parks.  These cards were produced locally by E.H. Schall Co.  In addition to Becraft's name on the front, they're also marked Kodachrome.  Although Becraft did many park scenes for Schall, the image shown above is one of his few cityscapes.

reprinted from May of 2013

2nd And Hamilton

Up to the mid 1960's,  before Allentown started tinkering with urban redevelopment, lower Hamilton Street still teemed with businesses. The City had grown from the river west,  and lower Hamilton Street was a vibrant area.  Two train stations and several rail lines crossed the busy thoroughfare.  Front, Ridge and Second were major streets in the first half of the twentieth century.  My grandparents settled on the 600 block of 2nd Street in 1895, along with other Jewish immigrants from Russia and Lithuania.  As a boy, I worked at my father's meat market on Union Street.  I would have lunch at a diner, just out of view in the photo above.  The diner was across from the A&P,  set back from the people shown on the corner.  A&P featured bags of ground to order 8 O'Clock coffee, the Starbucks of its day.

please click on photo

photocredit:Ed Miller, 1953

reprinted from November 2011

Downhill On Lehigh Street

During the early 1970's, Allentown demolished the entire neighborhood between Union and Lawrence Streets. It was, in a large part, home to the black community. How ironic that we destroyed the cohesion of a neighborhood, but renamed Lawrence Street after Martin Luther King. The only remnant of the neighborhood is the St. James A.M.E. Church. Going up the hill today we now have a vacant bank call center on the east, and the Housing Authority Project on the west. A whole neighborhood existed in from both sides of Lehigh Street, including black owned shops. The houses were old and humble, but people owned them, many for generations. Some blacks at the time wondered if the project was Urban Renewal or Negro Removal?

above reprinted from May 2011 

UPDATE MARCH 2, 2022: The housing authority now plans on demolishing their project on the west side of the hill, and replacing them with new units. They contend that the existing units are too old, althought the average row house in Allentown is at least twice as old. The new units will cost over half a $million dollars each.