949 Hamilton Street

Street number wise, the new hotel and entertainment complex at 10th and Hamilton will be known as 949 Hamilton St... Number wise, it encompasses the the original 947 to 959 Hamilton Street. Over the decades it was mostly known as the Rialto Theater complex, housing an ornate theater and a long lobby, along with various storefronts. The front lobby portion of the theater was the scene of a catastrophic fire in 1946, and then rebuilt. Perhaps the most memorable storefront was the Up-Town Wetherhold & Metzger shoe store. The theater space itself was demolished forty some years ago, to accommodate an expanding PPL. 

The former complex was actually several different buildings from different periods. Architecturally, the new construction will be an upgrade...That's something I never said before about a new NIZ building. Although I don't understand what the market will be for the hotel rooms, and the music venue will compete with Symphony Hall, it's not my investment. Wait, actually it is! Debt service on the NIZ projects is met with our diverted state taxes.

The Last Fight

When Abe Simon stepped into the ring at Madison Square Garden on March 27, 1942, it would be his last fight. He had been recently married, and promised his wife that he would stop fighting. One year earlier he had fought Joe Louis the first time, and endured a tremendous beating for thirteen rounds. Fighting since 1935, ranked 6th by Ring Magazine, a shot at the title was something a fighter cannot pass up. Many fight historians consider Louis the hardest hitting heavyweight of all time. Because of the publicity Simon gained from these Louis fights, he was offered a lucrative cross country boxing tour, which he declined. It was also Louis's last title defense for four years, until fighting Billy Conn in June of 1946. After the Simon fight he joined the U.S. Army, where he would fight 96 exhibition bouts at bases throughout the country. Shown above, Simon got knocked out in the sixth round.

reprinted from February 2010 

In December of 2012 I published twenty three boxing posts from the Joe Louis era. 

Molovinsky Marches On City Hall

Yesterday morning activist/blogger Michael Molovinsky briefly took over Mayor Matt Tuerk's 5th fl. office in Allentown City Hall.  He reportedly was distressed about the city's plan to redesign center square. 

Molovinsky agreed to surrender to Police Chief Roca if WFMZ would televise a brief statement by the septuagenarian.  Molovinsky's proclamation was rather rambling and incoherent. He was arraigned before District Justice Michael D'Amore and committed to Lehigh County Prison, in lieu of $200 bail.  

At this time it is unknown whether or not he remains incarcerated.

posted by the staff of molovinsky on allentown

ADDENDUM3:51AM:I was released at 3:30AM, gratitude to A-Town Bail&Bond. I've been informed that the mayor has invited city residents to 7th and Hamilton today for their input on redesigning the square. I know that the former merchants of Hamilton, Linden, 7th and 8th Sts. had no input when their property, business and dreams were taken. I know that residents of hazardous intersections were always told that stoplight placement was a state issue. Disappointing that Tuerk would stoop to the old public input dog and pony show to change the town square. After recent history, if they give the contracts out honestly, that's all we can ask for.

UPDATE JUNE 30: The main elements of the square redesign is funneling Hamilton's two lanes around the statue into one, and 7th Street's three lanes into two lanes. This merging, combined with Allentown's inconsiderate drivers and chronic double parking, will create induced congestion on both streets. The solution finds a problem!

Allentown's Folly

J.B. Reilly's NIZ is pulling the Lehigh Valley down, and nobody says a word, save for this blogger. While every city is facing an office vacancy dilemma,  Reilly keeps building, using our diverted state taxes.  Until now the consequence of his scheme has been to poach office tenants from the surrounding suburban office parks. However, now he has induced PPL to exit their iconic tower and take up residence in one of his mostly vacant buildings. 

What has been the pride of Allentown for almost a hundred years may end up being the tallest white elephant in the country. While Allentown is hoping that the tower becomes residential rather than just vacant, he can't fill his new apartment houses that he has already built. 

As someone who spends time on the streets adjoining the NIZ, I can tell you that the street life is becoming grittier than ever. Between the wokeness and delusion, there is no plan in place to  realistically address the problems. We know from the past that lipstick on a pig, or paint on a building, only lasts so long.

Allentown On My Mind

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays my older brother would take me on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we
would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.





Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kids, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away. 

compilation of two posts from June 2008

The Weigh-In

                                            Madison Square Garden, March 27, 1942
When they met for the first time the previous March, Abe Simon battled Joe Louis for 13 rounds. The Detroit crowd went wild that the Jewish giant from New York could absorb Louis's punches. Louis had the power of Mike Tyson and the finesse of Muhammad Ali. When it was revealed that Simon had fought with a broken hand, the Madison Garden rematch became a big ticket. Louis knocked Simon out in the sixth round. It would be Simon's last fight.
click on photo to enlarge

reprinted from December 2012