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 OCTOBER 25, 2024:Tyler Fatzinger reports that conditions at Fairview remain bleak. Attorney Orlaski has passed away, and Pat Browne as been replaced in the state senate by Jarrett Coleman. In addition to sharing this post with the Facebook group Allentown Chronicles, I will send this post along to Senator Coleman's office...Unlike his predecessor, he seems more involved with citizen concerns than business interests.

Allentown And Its Newspaper

When I was a kid, the paper was printed twice a day, The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle. Many subscribers, like my parents, received both editions. The paper was locally owned, as were the businesses that advertised within. The owner/publisher, the Miller family, were part of an oligarchy that ran Allentown. Donald Miller was also a partner in Park&Shop, predecessor to today's parking authority.

Today, the paper is owned by the Tribune Company, and has virtually no institutional memory of the town. To my knowledge, there is nobody on the staff born in Allentown. The most senior writers arrived in Allentown no earlier than the early 1970's. When the paper asks for memories or photographs of the heydays, what they receive is all new to them. Yesterday, a columnist recommended a history written by somebody who left Allentown as a 15 year old in 1962, and never returned, except for a visit in 2010.

The newspaper situation in Allentown mirrors a national trend. Many communities, like Bethlehem, no longer have a local paper. I just think that each article they write should have a disclaimer.

above reprinted from December 11, 2015 

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 24, 2024:In the last nine years things have gotten a little thinner for the Morning Call.The staff is smaller and younger, with less than ever institutional knowledge of the area. Their building was sold to J.B. Reilly, who named the remaining portion after his benefactor, Pat Browne. As reduced as that may sound, they are the only regional newspaper still in publication. I know the old-timers comprise much of their remaining readership. While I switched to digital only a few years ago, I have been a subscriber for over fifty years.

Accidental Charm Lost

A number of years ago I visited Charleston, a tourist mecca for its historic charm. A local explained to me that it was all an accident. After the Civil War, the city stayed so poor for so long that nobody could  afford to remodel or replace their buildings.

I have written in the past how Easton has profited from its historic charm, while Allentown will demolish anything anytime. Easton and its mayor for life Sal Panto are now demolishing a cornerstone of their charming square, the Jacob Meyer Building. Panto and company apparently are too dense to realize what they had. 

Sal only needed to visit Allentown's 7th & Hamilton to learn how dead new construction and a hotel can be.

postcard above of the Jacob Meyer Building, now being demolished

A Raise For J. B. Reilly

There's one constant in every rejected state budget plan coming out of Harrisburg, that's a raise in the cigarette tax. In that land of the moral and mental midgets, cigarette smokers are the low hanging fruit. They're not exactly an organized group, with a lobby defending their interests. Back here, in the land of private bonanza, any increase goes straight into J.B.'s pocket. Only Allentown, in Pennsylvania, could be having a $Billion Dollar building boom, which doesn't benefit anybody, but one man.

above reprinted from December 22, 2015 

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 22, 2024:Students of this blog know that I have been on the NIZ case from the beginning. The NIZ is a state ordinance which allows diverted state taxes to be used for the debt service on privately owned buildings, but only in Allentown. The plan was designed by then state senator Pat Browne. Almost all the new buildings financed with this plan in Allentown are owned by one man, J.B. Reilly, a childhood friend of Browne. In addition to the state taxes, the cigarette tax was thrown in Reilly's pot. Aside from this blogger, there was little interest concerning the NIZ inequities, until new state senator Jarrett Coleman realized how derelict the state house was in its lack of oversight. Before leaving office, Browne shrouded the NIZ data in additional layers of privacy. If all that wasn't shelter enough, new governor Shapiro appointed Browne Dirctor of Revenue. Needless to say, requests for NIZ data went unanswered. Coleman stayed with the inquiry, despite all the obstacles. Yesterday the state supreme court sided with Coleman.

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 23, 2024:Browne testified before the state senate yesterday, and Coleman is justifiably not satisfied with the answers. Browne's defense is that he is limited by the statues that he helped add in 2021, and the tax privacy rights of two beneficiaries. I suspect that the two are Reilly and Jaindl, concerning their wholesale cigarette entities. Although mandated by the NIZ ordinance, no audits have been performed since the inception of the NIZ.

Park Plan Meetings Disturbing

The Tuerk Administration has announced a series of meetings where the public can say what they would like to see and do in the parks. As an advocate for the traditional park system, I am not impressed. Needless to say what they should be doing is taking better care of the parks, rather than using them as an inclusion ploy.

While the WPA structures for the most part crumble, and the creek banks remain feral, we're spending another half $mil on enlarging the skateboard park. Tuerk is claiming that these meetings will help form a new masterplan for the park system. He and his park director remain misguided thinking that the direction of the iconic Allentown Park System should be subject to public whims. 

Talking of election ploys and popularity contests, I'm also tired of our Harrisburg incumbents for life using the parks as a photo opt for just bringing our tax money back to where it belongs.

picture postcard of Robin Hood, Lehigh Parkway, 1956

Real Life In Allentown

Putting aside the endless NIZ promotion by The Morning Call,  real life in Allentown hasn't gotten any better. Stabbing and shootings have become so commonplace,  that they're relegated to the middle of the paper. The reputation of the school system is so dismal, that people choose charter schools, not because of their merit, but just hoping for something a little better.  A school system that once had a national reputation for theater and art, is now known for fights and beating up policewomen. Add  a scandal ridden mayor and city hall, and we owe Billy Joel an apology. We accused him of maligning Allentown, we can't blame him this time. While the paper can't contain its joy over the arena, the city can't contain its crime.

There was a recent drive-by shooting in the small residential area wedged between Target shopping center and route 22, within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard. Early Sunday morning, close to the municipal golf course and again within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard, a car was left sitting on the owner's driveway, missing all four wheels.

Office workers may now drive downtown to work, but come five o'clock, all but a few childless millennials will drive back to suburbia, where more often the woes of Allentown now follow them. 

above reprinted from December 14, 2015

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 18, 2024:Although nine years have passed,I can't report that things are any better in Allentown.There's certainly more new buildings, and the police tell us that crime is down, but I don't sense any improvement in the quality of life. Probably by real metrics things are worse. Rents are through the roof and the schools remain distressed.