Morning Call Blues

On Friday afternoon the Morning Call staff held a walkout and rally at the Arts Park, not to be confused with the Arts Walk or the perp walk. In attendance were regional elected officials and hopefuls to express their solidarity.  Allentown Mayor Tuerk expressed dismay that the Morning Call no longer has a newsroom. 

This blogger has long expressed dismay from the beginning of the NIZ, that the Morning Call building, although across the street from the rest of NIZ zone map, was included in the zone anyway. So, it was of no surprise to this blogger when Reilly's City Center Realty gobbled up the Morning Call building. Although the politicians present at the rally praised the need for the public to have a hardy Fourth Estate, coverage of corruption wasn't mentioned. Long before the current Alden Global ownership of the Morning Call, there was no scrutiny by the newspaper of a former mayor's decade long corruption. Long before Alden, and since, there is little scrutiny of the NIZ. 

I'm grateful that we still have our local paper. I wish the individual Morning Call staff members well, and care about their continued employment security.  As to their demands for gender parity and diversity, my concern is for the lack of probing in local journalism. For that shortfall I blame the local management, rather than the reporters per se. Their management has always seemed reluctant to disturb the status quo of the local establishment. For example, I wanted them to report on why Wehr's Dam languished? I wanted them to report on how a decaying brewery building already has had two different subsidized owners under the NIZ? 

photocredit: By an aging blogger, who nevertheless manages to report on the rot in the little apple called Allentown every weekday for the last fifteen years.

Fairview Cemetery, An Allentown Dilemma

The condition of Fairview Cemetery has been in decline for decades.  It first caught my attention in 1997, when I began hunting for the grave of a young woman who died in 1918. 

By 1900, Fairview was Lehigh Valley's most prestigious cemetery.  It would become the final resting place of Allentown's most prominent citizens, including Harry Trexler, John Leh, Jack Mack and numerous others.  Despite my status as a dissident chronicler of local government and a critic of the local press,  my postings caught the attention of a previous editor at the Morning Call, whose own grandmother is buried at Fairview.  While the paper did a story on my efforts in 2008,  and I did manage to coordinate a meeting between management and some concerned citizens,  any benefit to the cemetery's condition was short lived.

Internet search engines have long arms. In the following years I would receive messages from various people upset about conditions at the cemetery.  A few years ago, Tyler Fatzinger became interested in the cemetery, and took it upon himself to start cleaning up certain areas. I suggested to Taylor that he start a facebook page, so that concerned citizens and distressed relatives might connect.  Once again the situation caught the paper's attention, and another story appeared in 2019.  Tyler Fatzinger was recently informed by the cemetery operator that he was trespassing, and must cease from his efforts to improve the cemetery.

Why would both the cemetery and city establishments reject help, and discourage shining a light on this situation? Orphan cemeteries are a problem across the country. An orphan cemetery is an old cemetery no longer affiliated with an active congregation or a funded organization.  These cemeteries are often large, with no concerned descendants or remaining funds.  While perpetual care may have been paid by family decades earlier,  those funds in current dollars are woefully short.

In Fairview's case, the current management operates a crematorium and also conducts new burials on the grounds. Funds from the previous management were supposedly not passed forward.  While the Trexler Trust maintains Harry Trexler's grave, and a few other plots are privately maintained,  there understandably is no desire to take responsibility for the entire sixty acre cemetery. The current operator provides minimal care to the cemetery,  with even less for those sections toward the back.  While the cemetery grass may only be cut twice a season,  that's still more care than a true "orphan cemetery" would receive.  Some of the new burials appear to be on old plots, owned by other families, but unused for many, many decades, and on former areas designated as pathways between those plots. There seems to be no regulatory oversight. Recently, both state senator Pat Browne and the Orloski Law firm have acted in behalf of the cemetery operator.

While family members may be exasperated by the neglect,  local government does not seem eager to adopt either the problem or the expense of Fairview Cemetery.

reprinted from June of 2021

ADDENDUM MAY 13, 2022: Tyler Fatzinger reminds us of Flag Day and other updates and news at his group page- Revive Fairview Cemetery

Weeping For The Allentown Park System

When Harry Trexler commissioned Frank Meehan of Philadelphia to design the Allentown parks, Meehan was considered the leading landscape architect in America.  It was because of Meehan that Allentown was shovel ready when the WPA started in the mid 1930's.  It was because of Meehan that our park system became the envy of cities everywhere.  

Throughout the park system he planted Weeping Willows thirty feet apart along the creeks. Their shallow, spreading root system provided the Little Lehigh, Cedar and Jordan Creeks erosion protection for almost a century. It provided both fish and fisherman beauty and shade along the creek banks.

Move ahead seventy five years, and in 2006 the from out of town new mayor Pawlowski combined the park and recreation departments, and hired a recreation major for department head. The new director turned over many park management decisions to the Wildlands Conservancy. The Wildlands introduced riparian buffers, even though the storm sewer system is piped directly into the creeks. As the Willows neared their lifespan and started dying out, they were not replaced. Rather, other trees were planted, back from the creeks, doubling down on the buffer concept.

We now realize that the creek banks are eroding, and that the buffers are incubators for invasive species. It is now the department's intention to seek outside consultants for recommendations. Rather than go outside again for advice, they should go back in history...Weeping Willows should be again planted along the banks. HOWEVER, the department REJECTS this suggestion, because willows are not indigenous. 

When I was a boy I lived above Lehigh Parkway in Little Lehigh Manor. My father's uncle worked for the park department cutting the grass along the creek. I'm saddened by the state of the creek banks, and the stubbornness of the city to not see the best solution.

Many of the original Willow trees have died, and the remaining ones are on their last legs.

Allentown Speak Out

                                    REPRINTED FROM 2012

In the best use, molovinsky on allentown chronicles my efforts in the community, in addition to being an alternative news source for local issues. Last week a small victory resulted from such efforts. Our local dignitaries broke ground for a new garage at Lanta. Several years ago, when the garage plans were first announced, it was to be built on the parking lot of Bicentennial Park. Allentown needed money, and Lanta had a grant to build a new garage. Lanta claimed that the ball park property was the only feasible location, and the City claimed that Bicentennial Park had outlived it's usefulness.

Bicentennial Park is virtually the history of baseball in Allentown. First opened in 1939 as Fairview Field, it was home to the minor league team of the Boston Braves; The Allentown Dukes played there through 1948, when Breadon Field was built in Whitehall, site now of the Lehigh Valley Mall. Over the years thousands of Allentown kids had the yearly thrill of playing "Under The Lights". In addition to hosting the Allentown Ambassadors, it currently serves women's fast pitch softball. In addition to the outrage in our park system, I will be adding the ballfield as a topic in my upcoming SPEAK OUT ALLENTOWN MEETING. from Lanta Mugs City, May 14,2009  

I conducted a meeting at a small local church, which attracted a couple members of City Council and the Hunsicker Family, who led the drive to build the park, decades ago. City Council went on to pass a resolution recommending that the park not be sold, and Lanta did eventually figure out an alternative space for the garage. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the dignitaries invited to the ground breaking, nor were my efforts even mentioned in the newspaper article, but a small victory, never the less.

Baseball Memoirs, June 3, 2009

above reprinted from 2012
UPDATE DECEMBER 2016: The meetings mentioned above, in 2008 and 2009, I conducted at Faith Baptist Church on N.12th St.  Among the topics were parking meter increases, Lanta,  Bicentennial Park, and Fairview Cemetery.  They provided an informal public venue for citizens and council to interact.  Years later, I would conduct more meetings at the library on preserving the WPA structures.  Unfortunately,  Allentown and South Whitehall have demonstrated little regard for our historic structures.  The mission continues.

Design considerations on this blog are chosen for desktop viewing.

above reprinted from December of 2016

UPDATE MAY 11, 2022: Although I no longer conduct public meetings, and remain a persona non grata at the Morning Call,  I continue to advocate through this blog and Allentown Chronicles, a facebook group. I started the effort to save Wehr's Dam, and was gratified to see South Whitehall reaffirm its commitment to that structure. I appreciated an email from a SWT official thanking me for my diligence on that project. Likewise, I started the effort to appreciate and repair the WPA structures in the Allentown park system. I made a public offer to give a tour of the structures, subject to the overdue repair of two sites. So far new mayor Matt Tuerk has not responded.

A Family Story

This post is unusually personal for this blog.  My grandfather came to Allentown from Russian Lithuania  in 1891.  In the next few years he was joined by his parents, and five siblings.   The family settled on 2nd Street, along with many other Jewish immigrants of that period.  He worked in various jobs, including a cigar factory, until he could establish himself as a butcher, as in the old country.  Because we were here for over a hundred years,  I consider myself somewhat of a local historian.

As a boy growing up in Little Lehigh Manor, on the ridge above Lehigh Parkway, I explored the WPA structures when they were still comparatively new.  Because of that background, I was able to uncover the Boat Landing, and advocate for our  traditional park system.  One of my father's uncles worked for the park system, caring for Lehigh Parkway.

What brought me to this post is my great grandmother's tombstone in Fountain Hill, which I recently visited.  She is buried in an old Jewish cemetery that is no longer in use. Although, her tombstone is very old, it replaced an even older one , that then laid behind the former Wentz's tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton, for many decades.  I am the last Molovinsky in Allentown.

photo taken behind Wentz's before recent demolition of that facility.

This blog is designed for desktop. 

reprinted from December of 2016

Stealing Allentown's Treasures

                                                   click photograph to enlarge

The merchants who built Hamilton Street counted on architecture to attract shoppers into their emporiums. Large neon signs wouldn't appear for another fifty years. The soffit and fascia shown above, halfway between 7th and 8th on Hamilton, is one of the most elaborate facades in Allentown. One thing you can say about Allentown City Hall, they never let culture, art, or history get into the way of their plans. As successful cities come to value and profit from their history more and more, Allentown keeps using the standard catalog of proven failures. I know from other projects on Hamilton Street that Pawlowski isn't big on history. The Cityline Building in the 800 Block was permitted to stucco over beautiful brickwork. Sad that the puppies, who are directors at the Art Museum and Historical Society, remain silent on the planned destruction. It's hard to describe the magnificence of the skylight shown below, also in the targeted block. It's very large in three sections, in pristine condition. Should be quite a snack for Pawlowski's bulldozer.
The bulldozer prevailed, and the former architectural treasures of our mercantile history were not preserved, save for this blog's archives. Above is reprinted from May 2011

UPDATE 2015:  The post above, reprinted from May of 2013, was then titled Stealing Allentown's Treasures. This past weekend, a member of Old Allentown Preservation Association, and an active local Democrat, bragged on facebook about how he had recycled an old second floor office door from the demolished buildings in the arena zone. In truth, Old Allentown also turned a self serving, callous eye to the destruction noted in the above post. Although I'm glad the door was recycled, allow this post to note the irony and hypocrisy of the Association.

UPDATE MAY 9, 2022:This isn't a new post- over the years, it has had different titles- but, unfortunately, its message remains more pertinent than ever. In addition to losing the mercantile architecture of Hamilton Street, we lost the Elk's Club on 8th Street. Currently, the magnificent art deco post office is in danger. More astoundingly, Zion Church, refuge of the Liberty Bell itself, is for sale. If these icons were being replaced by the building gems of the future, it would be more tolerable; but, frankly, the new buildings are architectural garbage. Allentown is in transition in so many ways. People who know better are afraid to speak out and be labeled in these woke times. Even our institutions and societies of history and culture stand down...but not this blog.