Best By Test

Growing up in Little Lehigh Parkway, now called Little Lehigh Manor by the Realtors, the milkman was an early morning fixture.  Almost every house had the insulated aluminum milkbox.  The milk trucks were distinctive, and the drivers wore a uniform, indicative of their responsibility.  Freeman's milk was the best by test, or so the slogan said.  Their trucks were red and immaculate.  The dairy building  still stands, a quarter block north of 13th and Tilghman Streets.  They competed with a giant, Lehigh Valley Co-Operative Farmers.  That dairy, on the Allentown/Whitehall border, just north of the Sumner Avenue Bridge on 7th Street, even sported an ice cream parlor.  Milk, up to the mid 50's, came in a bottle.  The milkman would take the empties away when delivering your fresh order.  In addition to white and chocolate,  they produced strawberry milk  in the summer.  About once a week the milkman would knock on the door to settle up;  times have changed.






Occasionally the bottle, and later the cartons, would feature themes and advertisements.  A picture of Hopalong Cassidy would entertain young boys as they poured milk into their Corn Flakes.  Earlier, during the War, (Second World) bottles would encourage customers to do their part;  buy a bond or scrap some metal for the war effort.

reprinted from 2015

Smelling The Roses In Allentown

Paul Pozzi started working for the Allentown Parks Department in 1979. In 1985, he joined the small crew at the Rose and Old Fashioned Gardens. For the last decade, the gardens have been solely under his magnificent care. We who take solace in that magic place owe him a debt of gratitude. 

Unfortunately, the rose garden has been infected by a disease, and some drastic measures are necessary. The Morning Call reports that a large portion of the roses must be removed, the planting beds sanitized, before new rose bushes can be planted. We are fortunate that Paul is on hand for this project.

photo by Molovinsky, flowers by Paul Pozzi

No Mercy For Little Lehigh Creek

Over the years I have documented the sewage leaks in Lehigh Parkway, both into the creek and onto the adjoining banks. The EPA was on Allentown's case for over a decade. Allentown ran down the clock with different proposals, until they leased the water systems to Lehigh County Authority. The different municipalities, then on the hook, came up with bandaid solutions. For instance, South Whitehall, rather than improve their pipes, decided to bang the homeowners. Each house would be inspected, and any condensation from central air conditioning would have to pumped out of the house, rather than dripping into a basement drain. The floor drains, which were installed to protect the house from leaks, would have to be closed off.

According to a Morning Call article, this past summer saw more sewage than ever flow into the Little Lehigh. Despite this worsening reality, the EPA has withdrawn their mandates, and will settle for a drop in the bucket...the banging the homeowner plan.

While the rate payers of LCA might, I say might, enjoy a reprieve, clean water advocates should be outraged.

photocredit:molovinsky

The Mad Men Of Allentown

Back in the day, the titans of Allentown would fill the five barberchairs of the Colonial Barbershop, 538 Hamilton Street. That was when the town had three department stores. That was when Wetherhold and Metzger had two shoe stores on Hamilton Street. That was when Harvey Farr would meet Donald Miller and John Leh at the Livingston Club for lunch, and discuss acquiring more lots for Park & Shop. By 1995 all that was gone, but Frank Gallucci, 82, would still give some old timers a trim. The Colonial Barbershop property, closed for many years, has been purchased by J.B. Reilly. It is my pleasure to present this previously unseen portrait of Gallucci, toward the end of his career.

photocredit:molovinsky

reprinted from September of 2017

Allentown's West End Train

The Lehigh Valley Railroad operated a train branch line which served Allentown's commercial west end. It ran along Sumner Avenue servicing the scrap metal yards, warehouses and numerous coal dealers located there. The line then crossed Tilghman Street on a diagonal at 17th, before looping back east by Liberty Street at the Fairgrounds. The line ended at a rail yard now housing the small shopping center at 12th and Liberty. Although many of former commercial buildings still exist, all now house more retail type businesses. The B'nai Brith Apartments occupy the site of the former Trexler Lumber Yard. These historical shorts are difficult to write. Most current residents have no frame of reference to our former commercial past. True historians, such as the local railroad buffs, cringe at the lack of detail and specific location of the tracks. Suffice to say, that once upon a time, the mid-section of Allentown had much more commerce.

photo of train crossing Tilghman at 17th Street taken by Kermit E. Geary in 1974, from the Mark Rabenold Collection.

above reprinted from March 2014


Although there are several Facebook groups about Allentown, I decided to fashion and start another. Like this blog, the group will focus on local history and politics, but with a markedly different tone.... It is intended to discuss the city's past, present and future in a non-partisan manner. It will neither be liberal nor conservative. It is not a nostalgia site for the best pizza, nor a gripe site about the worst city council member. Posts will not be restricted to Allentown, but anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. Unlike this blog, most of the posts will be submitted by members other than myself. While I start out as the default moderator, I may be joined by others with a local history background. You're invited to join. The group is named ALLENTOWN CHRONICLES, and another link can be found on my facebook page.

When A Mack Factory Made Trucks And A New Page

In yesterday's post, I called Site Selection magazine's praise of business in center city Allentown distorted.  It's based mostly on J. B. Reilly's poached tenants from surrounding areas.  Now the Morning Call cites the same article with a piece praising a recycling business in the former S. 10th Street Mack Factory.  They fill the building with contruction debris, and then sort the trash.  While the former factory once employed 1500 men,  the Morning Call portrays that using a former factory for a dump, with less than 20 employees, constitutes some sort of success.

In the past I have posted about the Mack factories on S. 10th Street, and their part in Allentown history. They produced trucks for WW1, and also played a part in WW2. Hundreds of men would use the WPA steps everyday on their way to work.

Although there are several Facebook groups about Allentown, I decided to fashion and start another. Like this blog, the group will focus on local history and politics, but with a markedly different tone.... It is intended to discuss the city's past, present and future in a non-partisan manner. It will neither be liberal nor conservative. It is not a nostalgia site for the best pizza, nor a gripe site about the worst city council member. Posts will not be restricted to Allentown, but anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. Unlike this blog, most of the posts will be submitted by members other than myself. While I start out as the default moderator, I may be joined by others with a local history background. You're invited to join. The group is named simply ALLENTOWN, and another link can be found on my facebook page.

photocredit:Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call

Cummingham's Used Cars

If ever there was a successful used car salesman, it has to be Donny Cunningham.  I saw an article on WFMZ about how successful the Lehigh Valley has become.  Needless to say, the article quotes both Donny and J.B. Reilly.  What it doesn't reveal is that all the new tenants in downtown Allentown were poached from suburban Allentown. What it doesn't reveal is that this transfer of jobs from taxes previously going to Pennsylvania,  to the taxes now going to Reilly's debt service, has actually created a massive tax loss to all citizens of Pennsylvania..  Furthermore, even Allentown itself has not benefitted from the new construction...the city just experienced its own tax increase.

The article was based on some business magazine article, which took its data from Reilly and Cunningham issued publicity...  Now Reilly and Cunningham are citing the article as proof of the success they are sponsoring.

Trump And The Media

I'm continually astounded by the media and Trump. From my point of view,  the media, especially CNN and The Washington Post, have set their sights on the president. The front third of CNN every day centers on Trump, and what he supposedly did illegally. A column in the Washington Post accused Fox News of casting aspersions against legitimate inquires. While this scrutiny of Trump has been going on since the inauguration in 2017, now the news is the news.

The Morning Call, which is essentially in a search for readers and survival, featured the Washington Post's Opinion piece. I suppose, with the mid-term election results, that their bet might make business sense.