A Grand Tour

Everyday, a thousand men would climb the steps back home after a working in the Mack plants and other industry on S. 10th Street, by Fountain Park. They lived in the well tended row houses which comprised center city. Their wives would shop in Mohican and other center city markets. Six movie houses served the Hamilton Street area to provide entertainment. The steps were constructed by the WPA between 1934 and 1937 and connected the industrial area with it's workers. Today, if properly maintained, they could connect the children and the parents of Allentown with the recreation of Fountain Park. You are invited to join Nicholas Butterfield tomorrow morning as he leads a well informed tour of this Allentown icon.The structure consists of three main sections. The Grand Stairwell from Lawrence Street (Martin Luther King Drive). The magnificent Union Street retaining wall with it's tunnel leading to the second set of steps. The second steps climb up to Spring Garden Street.I will be leading a group along Martin Luther King Jr Drive, starting at MLKJ and Union St, going up the first steps to Spring Garden, then down the 2nd steps from Junction St to MLK Jr Drive, starting 10 am Saturday, September 10 10 am. Call me if interested 610-770-1751. Nicholas Butterfield
TOUR REPORT BY NICHOLAS BUTTERFIELDSeven of us and one very young person took a tour Saturday morning of the WPA walls and steps along Martin Luther King Jr Drive, from S 10th St to Junction & Union Streets.The different walls appear in good condition overall. The steps need help.
From the Junction/Union St tunnel, climbing up to Spring Garden St, there is a lot of graffiti inside the tunnel entrance, going up to the first landing. Most has been there for several years, but there is some newer stuff.
Going up the steps to about the 3rd landing, one stone block is missing, for at least the last two years if not longer. The grass at the top of the steps is a foot high, in need of mowing by the City.
Going east on Spring Garden to S 10th, we looked over the dead parking lot, the prospective park that would connect Jackson St to the Junction St steps down to Martin Luther King & S 10th St. One resident earlier had asked me if the park would be safe from sinkholes, because the area was used as a landfill when the 8th St bridge was built.
The Junction St steps are in much greater need of repair. They are also used to a much greater extent than the Spring Garden steps, by people exercising or gong down to the Fountain Terrace fields. We counted at least 12 persons during our time on these steps.
A stone block is missing from one of the top western steps. The south side of the Junction St wall has a lot of white graffiti in at least 3 different sections. There were several used condoms on the path and a large number of bottles and cans scattered about, although it was much cleaner than in previous years. (Jim Molchany reminded me that over several years we pulled out many bags of trash and at least 13 tires from this area during our LANA clean up).
The macadam walkway has broken up in a number of places and needs to be resurfaced. After the east and west steps come together, there are missing stone blocks in at least 3 different places, including one spot where almost the entire step is gone, very much a hazard.Natalie observed the woods are just overgrown with underbrush and scrub trees, making it a very dark area. We need the City forester to review and recommend removal. There were several street lights along the path, but I will have to check at night to see if they are functioning.
My thanks to Gene Scharle, Edna Himmler who took photographs, Steven Ramos, Rose Gallagher, her daughter Natalie and grandchild Nadia, and Gregg Heilman, who regaled us with the history of this small area.
Nick Butterfield

Allentown's Future

Mayor Daddona's plan to save Allentown was the canopy built in front of the stores on Hamilton Street. Mayor Heydt's plan was tearing down the canopy in front of the stores. Mayor Pawlowski's plan is to tear down the stores and build an entertainment complex. Pawlowski's plan will eventually take three square blocks off the tax rolls. Already the first $100 million block has grown into a second block and another $100 million. Because of a rainy week, Steel Stack's Jeff Parks is walking around with a tin cup asking for donations. The Sands Corporation will be able to finance it's new entertainment complex with a money machine called a casino. When it rains on Pawlowski's white elephant, which it must from all the local competition alone, the short fall will come from our pockets. I'm not sure where Pawlowski will be then, but we're going to be up the creek, without a paddle, paying for huge, underused tax free buildings. There should have been a law, or a vote, or a City Council.

Note To The Mayor

Mayor Pawlowski, you may not remember me. I'm the widower who lives in the highrise on Union Street, who wrote you before here on Mr. Molovinsky's computer page. Last night I saw him at the library, and he gave me a ride home after some meeting he had. I used to work in the Mack factory where you now have a go-kart track. I saw pictures of it in the paper and it said you were now going to have City Council give it a liquor bar, so that they could get tanked up before they drove those carts around with children. Are you sure that's a good idea? Anyway, Mr. Molovinsky and his group want to fix up the stairs leading down to Lawrence Street. When I worked at Mack my kids would meet me on those steps and walk home with me. I miss that old Allentown. Mr. Molovinsky says that your hockey game will now cost $200 million dollars. Is it possible that just a few of those bucks could be used to fix up those stairs? My uncle helped build those steps along with a lot of other Allentown men. Sorry to bother you again, thanks for your time.

Works Progress Administration Meeting

Tonight is the meeting on Allentown's iconic WPA structures. When I first began this project three years ago, the steps leading from Union Street to Spring Garden were overgrown with weeds and saplings. My persistent, annoying blogging on the subject caught the attention of then opinion page editor Glenn Kranzley and columnist Paul Carpenter. The publicity they generated resulted in the city cleaning up those steps. My next target was what I called the boat landing. As a boy I had often played at that site. Long buried, it was now the step to nowhere.
Readers of this blog, on two separate weekends, succeeded in digging out the steps and the portion of the landing at the bottom on the steps. Blogger Chris Casey provided the lion's share of manpower in this accomplishment. The remainder of the landing was lost to large trees which grew over a period of forty years. There has been some speculation that my independent demeanor and blunt writing has alienated people, both at City Hall and The Morning Call. Although probably true, the merits of the projects stand on their own.
I managed to get the miniature bridge and spring pond cleared by appealing directly to Mike Gilbert, who is in charge of the watershed for the Park Department. I have been in communication with Park Director Greg Weitzel about tonight's meeting. Yesterday, I received a phone call from a women in her late 80's, whose father worked on the Lawrence Street steps. I believe a worthwhile future project would be to chronicle about those who did the labor; However, it's first necessary to insure that the fruits of that labor are preserved. Please join me this evening, so that I may prevail upon City Hall that a large number of our citizens hold these structures invaluable.

The meeting is at 7:00PM this evening in the lower level of the Allentown Library

Priority Basis

The excellent article in today's Morning Call by Devon Lash quotes city spokesman Mike Moore as saying park items are addressed on a priority basis. The city hopes to get grants to refurbish the WPA structures. I have observed over the years that if the city determines something is a priority, then they do manage to get the grants. In today's article the boat landing is referred to as a set of steps. The Landing was a major feature of Lehigh Parkway. Unfortunately, forty years ago, one park director took it upon himself to decide that it was expendable. These structures are the heritage of the citizens of Allentown. Please join me tomorrow evening, and help make their preservation a priority for Allentown. I'm grateful to Devon Lash and The Morning Call for their support in this effort.

Jewish Das Boot

The Israeli submarine fleet consists of three small boats, German made diesel-electrics, named Dolphins. The boats are early 1990 design. Two are stationed in the Mediterranean, and one supposedly in the Red Sea. Three more Dolphins are on order, and expected to arrive by 2013. Military analysts consider these Israel's second strike weapon, and may be armed accordingly.

Tragedy Play At Theater

There is a tragedy playing at the Union Terrace Amphitheater. It cannot be seen on the magnificent grass stage, but
on the top wall of the double stairwell leading down from St. Elmo Street. The top surface mortar has not been properly maintained, and the stones are in danger of falling. Unfortunately

the stones from the far right corner have already fallen, and currently
lay at the base of the wall and staircase. It's imperative that this icon be repointed in very short order, or the entire top surface of the wall will be jeopardized. It's my understanding the the amphitheater was the last WPA project built in Allentown. It's necessary for it to be first in a new wave of upkeep. Please join me this coming Tuesday evening, September 6, and help make this a must do for Allentown.

WPA Project Support Meeting Allentown Public Library (lower level) Tuesday, 7:00 PM