Sign Of The Times

As Allentown eagerly awaits the opening of the Cosmopolitan Restaurant and banquet facility on 6th Street, lets go back in time. Before the former Sal's Spaghetti House was demolished on that parcel, preservationists from Bucks County saved the historic sign. Had the couple been somewhat more familiar with Allentown's history, they may have realized that the sign was neither very historic or iconic.

Before Hamilton Street was bi-sected architecturally by the now gone canopy, the street was lined with large neon signs, many of which were much more elaborate than Sal's; That sign became historic by default. Interestingly, the Sal's sign for most of it's


business days, said Pat's. Pat's and the sign go back to the mid 1950's. In the late 70's, the business was taken over by Sal, and the P and T were simply changed to an S and L. But time goes on; Sal's family is now in the sauce business and have a most interesting website.

1963 Pat's advertisement courtesy of Larry P
Hamilton Steet watercolor by Karoline Schaub-Peeler
photo of Sal's sign by molovinsky                                                 

reprinted from 2010

ADDENDUM JUNE 17, 2022: The Cosmopolitan proved to be too cosmopolitan for Allentown. While the owner's deep pockets kept it open for a few years, even the next more modest reincarnation couldn't complete with the new NIZ subsidized competitors. 

A recent article in the Morning Call heralds the $Billion dollars invested by J.B. Reilly's City Center Realty on Hamilton and adjoining Streets...That money of course is diverted state income tax, and is our investment, not his, but he gets to own it. Although this blog was hoping to restrict itself to history for a spell, the Morning Call's omission on this and other matters compels me to retain this blog's political bureau.

The Gordon Street Paint Shop

As a boy growing up in Little Lehigh Manor, I vaguely remember the trolleys. The final switch over to buses occurred in 1953. Although the major trolley and bus barn was the Fairview facility near my house, the Lehigh Valley Transit Company also had other storage and work sites. The west end trolley barn, at 14th and Gordon Streets, also served as their paint shop. Although the location has been a wholesale plumbing supply business for many decades, until recent years the tracks leading into the current warehouse were visible. The photo above dates from 1938, and shows a freshly painted trolley.

reprinted from May of 2013

The World Of Mirth

Allentown at one time had two very productive railroad branch lines; The West End, and the Barber Quarry. The Barber Quarry, for the most part, ran along the Little Lehigh Creek. It serviced Traylor Engineering on South 10th,* and continued west until it turned north toward Union Terrace, last ending at Wenz's tombstone at 20th and Hamilton Streets. (years earlier it crossed Hamilton St. to the former bottling plant in the park dept. garage) The West End, for the most part, ran along Sumner Avenue, turning south and looping past 17th and Liberty Streets, ending near 12th St.

The wonderful photograph above shows the World of Mirth train at 17th and Liberty. World of Mirth was the midway operator at the Allentown Fair during the 40's and 50's. In the background is Trexler Lumber Yard, which burnt down in the early 1970's. The B'nai B'rith Apartment houses now occupy the location. 

* Reading Railroad also had a branch which serviced the Mack Plant on S. 10th St.

reprinted from 2010

photograph from the collection of Mark Rabenold

The Radiation Mystery:Wetherhold&Metzger

The Shoe giant Wetherhold & Metzger started in 1908 on Hamilton street's south side. When business began to prosper, they moved across to the more prominent north side of Hamilton Street. Their store at 719 Hamilton was recently demolished, along with most of Allentown's mercantile history. It was a two story store, with the children's department on the lower level. This post originally was scheduled for sometime in the future, and was to include a Buster Brown poster. Today's Morning Call has a story on the mystery radium 226 found in the debris of the former buildings, and I thought perhaps the molovinsky on allentown historical division could help. Wetherhold & Metzer's downtown store was quite the adventure for a kid. In addition to your mother's money being transported away in a tube system like the bank drive-ups use today, you could look inside your shoes and see your feet.

Needless to say, eventually these shoe fluoroscopes were banned, but for many years one stood in the lower level of 719 Hamilton Street. Many a child, including myself, saw our foot bones in our new Buster Browns. Wetherhold & Metzger also had an uptown store in the 900 block of Hamilton Street.

reprinted from September of 2012

Hamilton Street's Golden Era

Wetherhold & Metzger was one of the giants of Hamilton Street. The extended family operated two stores on Hamilton Street. When exactly was the height of the golden era I suppose is a frame of reference. I can tell you that as a early baby boomer, Hamilton Street was booming in the 1950's. With three large department stores, three large 5&10's, half a dozen shoe stores, half a dozen jewelers, women and men's stores, there was something for everybody. In addition to Hamilton, stores were also located on the number streets.

MOLOVINSKY UNIVERSITY
At 2:00pm this afternoon, I will present a 1930 map showing the business district of downtown Allentown. We will be meeting at The Coffee House Without Limits. The shop is located on 4th, just north of Tilghman Street, in the Alternative Gallery. You are cordially invited to join us.   

above reprinted from September of 2016

ADDENDUM JUNE 13, 2022: For many of Allentown's new residents, without the above frame of reference, today is the golden era for Hamilton Street. There are certainly many new buildings, but not much yet in the way of people or retail. The term urban office park is now being used. The developer is also building numerous new apartment houses. Although both the coffee house and university mentioned above have since closed their doors, this fall I hope to conduct an alumni meeting, at one of the new coffee houses at 7th and Hamilton Sts..

City Hall Insults The Neighborhood

This is a post which I spent a week trying not to write. It is a story of favoritism and abuse of power. About four years ago a homeowner, in a quiet south side neighborhood, moved out and rented the house to his brother. Under Allentown regulations this property hence became a rental property, and subject to license and inspection procedures. As it turns out, these brothers are childhood friends with an Allentown inspector. The second brother, the tenant, has been disruptive in the neighborhood by every criterion relevant to code enforcement. The property became unkempt and subject of numerous police calls, including the SWAT team. All calls for relief from surrounding properties seemed to end up with the family's inspector friend, and brought no relief from the problems. Allentown has been very pro-active with problem properties. In the first eight months of 2010, 342 properties received orange tags, forcing the property to be vacated. Most tags were issued for problems significantly more minor than those occurring in the subject of this post. This past October, the bank foreclosed on the property. The tenant legally became a squatter. A neighbor's complaint resulted in another inspector discovering that the bank owned property was an unregistered rental, and he issued a 30 day to vacate tag for illegal occupancy. It appeared that finally the neighbors would get relief from the trash, noise and police calls. The childhood friend inspector intervened, and the 30 day notice was never enforced. My efforts with the inspector on behalf of the other property owners (including myself) were to no avail. I have spent the week documenting the problem up the chain of command, right to the Mayor's office. Although the property is in gross violation of code, the illegal tenant is allowed to remain. Although in the last eight months police have surrounded the property several times in complete violation of the disruptive tenant ordinance, the occupant remains. In typical City Hall fashion, they have circled the wagons around the inspector, around their own. They are now actually trying to work with the bank and make him the homeowner. The top photo is the back yard on May 9, 2011, with years worth of garbage. You will be happy to know that a city contractor has now been hired to clean the property and cut the grass, at your expense. The City's course of action is a total insult to the neighbors. I did see some inspectors today, they were walking around my property. 

above reprinted from June of 2011

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 13, 2021: During the Pawlowski regime, city code enforcement was weaponized.  As both a landlord and blogger, I took on substantial personal risk to expose the Pawlowski regime for its corruption.  While the Morning Call borrowed some my other blog posts without attribution, they never once used ones about city hall shenanigans...That's why Pawlowski got away with things for so long. 

I'd like to tell you that city hall is completely cleaned up, but it isn't. Just two years ago I had to defend an east side woman from code abuse. While things are certainly better at city hall, it's still filled with people who were appointed and promoted during Pawlowski's three terms. While there's still a residual arrogance of power there, I'm hopeful for a more accountable city hall as time passes.  

Although the years have slowed this blog down somewhat, I'm still on patrol.

ADDENDUM JUNE 10, 2022: While there's a new mayor, any change remains to be seen. Matt Tuerk chose to keep everybody in place at city hall, including code enforcement. While I understand his reluctance against a clean sweep, some changes were in order. 

Tuerk has been preoccupied with inclusion and making all citizens feel welcome. While that's all nice and good, the time has come to start improving the rights of the property owners...The right to equal and fair treatment by all the departments within the city.