Allentown's Orange Car

While the Orange Car, on Union St. near the Lehigh River, went out of business over twenty years ago, the building sat there vacant, fading away.  Although recently demolished, there's a story behind the slow demise.

When the Lehigh Valley Railroad went bankrupt in 1976, its rolling stock and track went to Conrail. However its other assets, such as real estate, were tied up in bankruptcy.  The Orange Car building was owned by LVRR.  Many years ago there was a small six track rail yard between the Orange Car and the meat packing business to its east.  Carloads of fresh citrus fruit would arrive weekly from Florida. After the rail service ended, the lessee continued operating the fruit stand for another twenty years. 

I labeled this post Allentown's Orange Car, because there was an identical looking sister store in Reading.  That location also had a major event in 1976,  a flood from which it never recovered. 

above reprinted from April of 2021 

Just Out Of View And Gone In Allentown

The photo above means a lot to me, for the things just out of view and now gone. You're at the crossing tower on Union Street, near 3th. There's another gate stopping the eastbound traffic, which has backed up toward the Jordan Creek. The same train has also blocked traffic further down the line, at Basin Street. It's the early 1950's and the tracks from the two rail lines, Lehigh Valley and Jersey Central, cross here.  At the end of Union Street you can make out my father's market, Allentown Meat Packing Company. The whole side of the building is a sign, painted directly on the brick in red and silver, Retail Meats, Wholesale Prices. You'll pass Morris Black Building Supply and The Orange Car before you get there. You'll also have to cross another set of tracks, which was the Lehigh Valley old main, before they built the Railroad Terminal over the Jordan Creek, at Hamilton Street. Our commercial past is now consigned to memory and future urban archeology.

reprinted from December of 2013

Allentown's History A Thing Of The Past

As I've been studying up on Allentown's former merchants, I keep thinking of the radial population shift experienced by this city in one generation. While most the merchants of 1930 were at least 3th generation Allentonians, the new residents, mostly Hispanic, are almost all recent arrivals. Interest in local history is so small that even the local historic society concentrates on topics of national interest, such as Abraham Lincoln.

Talking of Lincoln, this population shift has had political consequences.  Pawlowski, who hails from Chicago,  was not unlike the carpetbaggers who went south after the civil war.  I believe that we are in a historic void, between the old Pa. Dutch culture, and the new Hispanic population, which has not yet risen politically.  And, like the south after the Civil War,  the opportunists are making hay.

postcard above,  Hamilton Street 1930 

above reprinted from September of 2016

ADDENDUM JUNE 22, 2022: Here we are six years later, and we have a bridge mayor between the two cultures mentioned above. Although Matt Tuerk emphasizes the Hispanic in his background, and speaks Spanish, he doesn't dance the Merengue (so to speak).* However, certainly the Hispanic culture is now well established on city council. For those interested in learning more about the Pennsylvania Dutch culture, you'll have to now drive at least 20 miles west to Kutztown.

* Tuerk so far is doing a good job as mayor, but my job as a political/historical blogger does not allow me to become a fan of any politician.

Jennie Molovinsky Gets A New Visitor

I was at a party where the host recently acquired a lawn sculpture. Unknown to him, a section of it was comprised of an old Jewish tombstone, of a wife and mother, M. Azrilian, who died at the age of 25 in 1918. It's a beautiful carving of a branchless tree trunk, symbolizing a life ended prematurely.
I became concerned as to where this stone had come from. Who would know if their great-grandmother's stone was taken? I had no idea even where my great-grandmother was buried. I searched for this young woman's grave. Finally, Rabbi Juda from Bethlehem directed me to the old Agudath Achim Cemetery in Fountain Hill. There I found the woman, M. Azrilian, with a new grave marker. Next to her I discovered Jennie Molovinsky, my great-grandmother.

My thanks to Rabbi Juda and M. Azrilian (1893-1918)

I  wrote the above paragraph in July of 1997.  In searching for M. Azrilian, I first became aware of Mt. Sinai, the small Jewish portion of Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh Street in Allentown. Early posts on this blog deal with my advocacy for that cemetery, and the history of the Mt. Sinai portion.  When Jennie died in 1913, the former Agudath Achim Synagogue on 2nd Street in Allentown had just consecrated their new cemetery on Fullerton Avenue. Jewish tradition requires that the first burial be a man, so Jennie was buried in the old cemetery, on Fountain Hill.

reprinted from previous years

ADDENDUM JUNE 21, 2022: Although this post deals with cemeteries, life goes on. My friend's property with the lawn sculpture changed hands several times, and the new owners wondered about M Azrilian. A google search led to the above post, and they in turn decided to also search the Agudath Achim Cemetery on Fountain Hill. While there they contacted me, because M Azrilian is in a small old section, difficult to find. I directed them to the obscure area, and they located M Azrilian and Jennie's markers. I haven't visited Jennie for a number of years, and am grateful for their visit.

Fading Park Postcards Of Allentown

While Allentown continues it's efforts to establish a dog park, the parks themselves are going to the dogs. Take an aging park system, combine it with an administration composed of people from out of town with no institutional memory of the city, and the the famous images of Allentown are disappearing . This year the dogs got more time in Cedar Beach Pool than the residents. Cedar Beach is closed for the season; Of course, that's what they said when Fountain Pool first closed. The stone stairwell, going down into Union Terrace off St. Elmo Street, is crumbling. The park is now called Joseph S. Daddona Lake and Terrace. With Cedar Pool closed, Irving Park, with the first pool in the city, will be renamed Andre Reed Park. One stone staircase in that park was removed several years ago, rather than repaired. It won't be too long before people look at an old park postcard, and wonder where that picture was taken.

above reprinted from June of 2015

ADDENDUM JUNE 20, 2022: Yesterday, Allentown celebrated Juneteenth by Cedar Beach Pool. All reports indicate a very successful day, enjoyed by all participants and the new mayor. While I could join the chorus in such praise, instead, I print this reminder of the traditiional park system. 

Irving has joined Fountain Pool in pools of Allentown's past...Both now only exist on old postcards. The steps and other WPA structures at Union Terrace are in dire need of attention. While the parks have mainly become venues for events, at least one advocate for the traditional park system seems to be in order.

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.