Saving Our Treasures

Yesterday, I had an amazing experience. I decided to research the WPA items at the Lehigh Valley Historical Society. Although I found that particular documentation lacking, out of nowhere, an elderly lady handed me a photo from her pocketbook; a picture of the Boat Landing she had taken with a Kodak Brownie camera in the early 1940's. She had the picture with her because she had shown it to several friends who also lamented the loss of our icons.









Today I went to the park to photograph the remaining element of that structure, the steps, to write a post I intended to title "Lost Treasures". Despite my fear of ticks and other organic matter, I proceeded down the steps and pushed the bushes aside. There to my surprise, I found that the retaining walls were mostly still there.

Emboldened by this discovery, I went over to the other side of the creek and worked my way through the riparian buffer; there to my utter amazement I saw that the curved creek walls of the landing have withstood the years of time. Despite decades of neglect by our Park Department, I believe that a half dozen people equipped with a few clippers could unveil a lost treasure. There is a few large trees which have grown on the landing, and there are missing stones, but most of it still exists, waiting only for a few urban archaeologists with an appreciation of what once adorned this park. Will you join me and help restore this gift from our past?


UPDATE: The above post was written in October of 2009. Although I succeeded in organizing a small group of volunteers who would indeed reveal the steps, I've had less success with the Park Department and Trexler Trust in regard to preserving our WPA monuments. Please join me at an upcoming meeting for the Friends Of Allentown's WPA Heritage.

Tuesday, Sept. 6, 7:00pm Allentown Library, Lower Level Conference Room

History of The Boat Landing

The feature shown in the photo, from the Mack Truck Magazine of 1943, shows a beautiful stone masonry structure in Lehigh Parkway that was allowed to go to ruin. We kids of the Parkway called this the "boat landing". It is located near the end of the park near Regency Apartments. I use the present tense because remnants of this edifice still exist, buried under dirt and debris. Other attractions lost in that section of the park include the Spring Pond near the Robin Hood parking lot, and the bridge to the "Island", plus the mosaic inlaid benches which were on the island. ( Island halfway between parking lot and boat landing). Neither the Mayor or the Park Director knows that these centerpieces ever existed. These are irreplaceable architectural treasures well worth restoring.

reprinted from May, 2009. First in a series of reprints documenting the uncovering of this treasure after 50 years.

Have Gun- Will Travel

Richard Boone played Paladin, a sophisticated hired gun who lived in an upscale San Francisco Hotel between assignments. According to Samantha Marcus of The Morning Call, Paul Blunt is an Easton lawyer who will negotiate for a fee, for both school boards and teacher unions. Zahorchak has hired Paladin, I mean Blunt, to negotiate with the Allentown Teachers Union for the next contract. Considering all the financial consequences of a contract, I can't fault the hire per se. With all the questionable, new full time administrative positions Zahorchak has created, it's good to see this important task outsourced to a true professional.
Perhaps when it's time to hire a new superintendent, the school board should consider outsourcing that decision.

The Debt Crisis

When Eisenhower was President, I think he addressed the public about three times a year, on one of three networks. Media historians view the Nixon-Kennedy Debate as the beginning of politics as an audio visual experience. On a parallel track, at the same time our candidates needed to sell better to a visually literate audience, our news has become much more tabloid. Today, we actually have comedians and disk jockeys providing analysis on dozens of networks. Although our President addresses the nation about once a week, the level of public comprehension is debatable. The only sure conclusion is that we have been successfully polarized. The box, which now is a flat screen, has us conditioned to contrived drama on reality shows. The current one is called the debt crisis.

Allentown Post Office 1934

In the 1930's, the "New Deal" was good to Allentown. As I noted on earlier posts, our park system was enriched by monumental stone construction under the WPA. We also received one of the architectural gems of our area, the magnificent art deco post office. Constructed during 1933-34, no detail was spared in making the lobby an ageless classic. The floor is adorned with handmade Mercer tiles from Doylestown. Muralist Gifford Reynolds Beal worked thru 1939 portraying the Valley's cultural and industrial history. This incredible 74 year old photograph is the contractor's documentation of the project's progress. The back of the photo states; Taken Sept 1 - 34 showing lobby, floor, screens, desks, completed & fixtures hung

UPDATE: I have reinstalled the photograph with a version that will enlarge when clicked.

Reprinted from Jan.15, 2010

Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad

The "Iron Bridge" was opened in 1857, was 1165 feet long, and 104 feet above the Jordan Creek. In WWI, weight restrictions caused the P&R (the owner of the line at that time) to start filling over the bridge. Tunnels were constructed for Iron Bridge Rd., the former Slatington Trolley (using the same bore as Iron Bridge Rd.), and the Jordan Creek (2 bores). The result today is a large tree covered fill to the west of Cedar Crest Boulevard. John G Frantz

The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad began in the mid 1850's, to haul iron ore from western Lehigh County to the furnaces along the Lehigh River near Catasauqua. Remnants of the line exist from Seiple to Alburtis, where it connects with the East Penn Line. Active spurs of today's C&F, operated by Norfolk Southern, serve the warehouses west on Tilghman Street, and Route 78. Until 1935, a passenger train operated on the line between Alburtis and West Catasauqua.

19th Street Pride

The merchants of the 19th Street area, aka West End Theater District, have refurbished the WW2 Monument on the corner of 19th and Allen Streets. The tarnished brass plates shown here have been removed, professionally polished, and reinstalled. The background has been painted a dark battle ship gray, providing more contrast to the bottom dedication plaque. New landscaping had been completed earlier in the summer. How this monument came to be placed on private property was still a mystery last month. While West Park houses several war memorials, other scattered site memorials also exist. My West End is a blog dedicated to news and plans for that neighborhood.
photo from My West End blog