End Of The Line In Allentown

Shown above is the former Wentz Tombstone shop at 20th and Hamilton Streets. Shown leading up to the workshop were tracks of the former Quarry Barber train spur.  Many years earlier, the line crossed Hamilton and served a former soda bottling plant on Linden Street, behind the stadium.  That building eventually was taken over by the park department, which allowed it to deteriorate, rather than replace the roof. The park department still believes in neglect, rather than maintenance.  

Before the flatcar with granite reached the tombstone plant, it traveled between the stage and pond at Union Terrace. Two small bridges crossed the waterway behind the pond, one for the train and one for pedestrians coming to the park from Walnut Street.

I have been campaigning to get the park department to replace the pedestrian bridge it had removed, rather than repair it about eight years ago. There is nobody in the administration that remembers the bridge, they're all newcomers to town. But I remember, and I don't mind reminding them.

reprint

Bob Brooks' Lemonade Stand

Fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare wondered why Lamont McClure lost? He lost because he never had a chance:) But the real question is why did Ryan Crosswell lose? The answer is Bernie O' Hare. Bernie led the pack in disclosing that Brooks stiffed his ex-mother-in-law on a house loan after she became an ex.

I jest at putting the blame at Bernie's door, but talk about making lemonade! Late in the campaign, too late to respond, Brooks' camp put out a video with him saying he was just an everyman, who had to decide between the mortgage and the medical bills, and he chose to pay his medical bills.

Now certainly the party endorsement didn't hurt Brooks, especially with Shapiro chiming in. I doubt that come November I'll cast any vote in that election. I'm not much for party sycophants, regardless of their label pin.

Foreign Policy

Readers of this blog know that I'm recently accused on moving to the left. By my vision, the conservative movement has moved right, clinging on to Trump's victory in November 2024. By my markers, between Trump's unqualified appointments, and the actions of those people, one either has to be in the MAGA or be a Republican partisan lacking in greater values to remain on board.

While the above paragraph explains my current American dilemma, this post is about my issues with current Israel. Up to about mid 2024, I had been a long time admirer of Netanyahu. Although the angst of October 7 cannot be fully understood by those other than Israelis, I thought the destruction of Gaza was approaching domicide. Now, two years later, I'm seeing the same attitude on the West Bank.

I have been looking for an Israeli-American group that reflects my values. They all seem to be either too much on board with the current Israel administration, or too progressive for my DNA. Ironically, J-Street would now be closest to my current perception of the situation in Israel. If I was a joiner, which I have never been, that is where I would be parked.

Talk about wandering, one must wonder more and more about Trump's motives. Attacking Iran on Monday during negotiations seems to have become a Trump/Hegseth formula. Adding demands to join the Abraham Accords to the negotiation is likewise incomprehensible.

Showing Up With Matt Tuerk On WDIY88.1

I listened to a softball interview on local public radio with Mayor Matt.  I'm being kind calling it softball, it was a foamball, as used with very young children. Matt talked about how just showing up is such an important part of his job.

Last year I  met up with Alfonso Todd for a podcast. While I call the project Radio Molovinsky, he calls it Prolifick Radio2.0. Either way, I invite Matt to sit down for an interview with Alfonso and myself.  Over the years I have mellowed, and my questions won't be iceballs, but we're all too old for foamballs.

Assuming Matt agrees to the adult interview, I'll publish a link to the podcast here on the blog after it is recorded.

A Tailor From North Street

The Allentown Housing and Development Corp. recently purchased a home at 421 North St. That block of North Street was destroyed by fire, and the agency has built a block of new houses on the street's south side; it will next develop the other side of the street. The deed transfer caught my attention because Morris Wolf lived in the house in 1903. Wolf signed up with the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on July 18, 1861, in Philadelphia, when he was 22 years old. He was a private in Company A, of the 3rd Cavalry. This unit was also known as the 60th Regiment and was later called Young's Kentucky Light Cavalry.It defended Washington, D.C., until March 1862, then participated in many of the war's most famous battles: Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Wolf had signed up for three years and was mustered out Aug. 24,1864.

Recently, to commemorate Memorial Day, the local veterans group placed more than 500 flags at Fairview Cemetery. If that wasn't enough of a good deed, the group also set upright more than 300 toppled grave markers. Visiting Fairview recently, I saw they had not overlooked the graves of either Mr. Wolf, or another veteran, Joseph Levine. I have concerned myself with Allentown's Fairview Cemetery for the last few years. I first became interested in the small Jewish section, called Mt. Sinai. This was the first organized Jewish cemetery in Allentown. Currently, all the synagogues have their own cemeteries, and Mt. Sinai has been mostly unused for many decades.

Mr. Wolf lies next to his wife, Julia, who died in 1907. Morris would live on for 30 more years, passing away in 1937, at age 98.
Mr. Levine, a World War II veteran, and his wife, Ethel, were the first and last people to be buried there after almost 25 years of inactivity. When Ethel died at age 93 in 2000, it was the first burial at Mt. Sinai since 1976. Joseph was 103 years old when he passed away in 2006.

The Housing and Development Corp. and North Street are now part of Allentown's new neighborhood initiative called Jordan Heights.Although soon there will be a new house at 421 North St., there is a history that will remain with the parcel. Once a tailor lived there who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.

reprinted from 2010 

ADDENDUM MAY 25, 2026: In 2015 there was a subsequent burial at Mt. Sinai.

Trees, Trailways and Neglect

 

Every several years I visit City Council to make a pitch for a neglected WPA structure. The Double Stairway in Lehigh Parkway was the kingpin of the Parkway's construction. Commissioned by Harry Trexler in 1928, it was constructed in 1935 as part of the park's entrance road.

When part of the wall fell from neglect, I was optimistic that the stairwell landings would be repaired. I have been lobbying for that restoration for the last fifteen years. In that time the landings have begun to sag, and the steps crumble. What would have been an easy flagstone repair is now a rebuild.

Last night the current park director outlined the $millions that would be spent this year on trees and trails. In response to my pesky question, she told me that within a year they will have recommendations from an expert on how to proceed with the steps. In reality, it is not Mt. Vernon nor the Washington Monument. It is a WPA project, like hundreds of others around the country, constructed during the depression. The problem is priorities. As a student and advocate of the park system for many years, I can tell her the repair is two decades overdue.