The Trains Of Union Street

Up to the late 1960's, Union Street, between the Jordan Creek and Lehigh River, was  crossed by numerous train tracks. In addition to the main tracks for the New Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Railroads, the area hosted many sidings for the industries that once huddled along this historic river front area.  There was a small rail yard with five sidings between the UGI gas storage tank, which dominated Allentown's skyline, and Allentown Meat Packing Company.  The photo above dates from the late 1940's.  The map below from the early 1930's.



Small rail yard on bottom left of map. Allentown Meat Packing was the former H.H. Steinmetz Co. in 1932.

reprinted from 2017

Just Out Of View And Gone In Allentown

The photo above means a lot to me, for the things just out of view and now gone. You're at the crossing tower on Union Street, near 3th. There's another gate stopping the eastbound traffic, which has backed up toward the Jordan Creek. The same train has also blocked traffic further down the line, at Basin Street. It's the early 1950's and the tracks from the two rail lines, Lehigh Valley and Jersey Central, cross here.  At the end of Union Street you can make out my father's market, Allentown Meat Packing Company. The whole side of the building is a sign, painted directly on the brick in red and silver, Retail Meats, Wholesale Prices. You'll pass Morris Black Building Supply and The Orange Car before you get there. You'll also have to cross another set of tracks, which was the Lehigh Valley old main, before they built the Railroad Terminal over the Jordan Creek, at Hamilton Street. Our commercial past is now consigned to memory and future urban archeology.

reprinted from December of 2013

Allentown Meat Packing Co.

My grandfather lived on the corner of Jordan and Chew, and butchered in a small barn behind the house. He would deliver by horse and wagon to his customers, corner markets. The house is still there, the barn, long gone. My father, and one of his brothers, acquired the H.H. Steinmetz packing house in 1943. Operating as Allentown Meat Packing, by 1950 they closed the slaughter house, and converted the front of the plant into a meat market open to the public. That continued to 1970, when it was leased to an operator who sold meat by freezer full packages. In 1975 the building was torn down, as part of a long term lease agreement with A&B, who wanted the space for parking. The photo was taken just prior to demolition.

The Butchers Of Allentown

photograph by Bob Wilt

A&B (Arbogast&Bastian), dominated the local meat packing industry for almost 100 years. At it's peak, they employed 700 people and could process 4,000 hogs a day. The huge plant was at the foot of Hamilton Street, at the Lehigh River. All that remains is their free standing office building, which has been incorporated into America on Wheels. Front and Hamilton was Allentown's meatpacking district. Within one block, two national Chicago meatpackers, Swift and Wilson, had distribution centers. Also in the area were several small independents, among them M. Feder and Allentown Meat Packing Company.

Allentown Meat Packing was owned by my father and uncle. The area was criss-crossed with tracks, owned by both LVRR and Jersey Central. All the plants had their own sidings. This is an era when commerce was measured in factories and production, not just relocated office workers.

Molovinsky On Allentown occasionally takes a break from the local political discourse to present local history.  My grandfather came to Allentown in 1891 and lived in the Ward on 2nd Street. By the time my father was born in 1917, they lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets.

reprinted from previous years

Growing Old Waiting For Cedarbrook

Although the state mandates prisons, and no such mandate exists for nursing homes.  I believe that a sacred covenant exists between the county and its elderly, to maintain Cedarbrook. Northampton has a very old prison and a modern nursing home. Here in Lehigh County, we have a modern high rise prison, and a very old nursing home. Prisoners in Lehigh County have nicer amenities than the patients at its nursing home. What's wrong with that picture, what's wrong with those priorities?

County Commissioners have been studying renovating Cedarbrook since 2011.

Former County Executive Tom Muller had a  plan in 2014 to renovate a wing of Cedarbrook into private and semi-private rooms. His analysis had the project paying for itself within three years, by attracting rehabilitation residents. Instead of pursuing that viable turn around project, the Commissioners instead explored the sale option. Had the commissioners implemented Muller's plan, the proposed renovated wing would have already paid for itself.

Now, five years later, and the commissioners are still dropping the ball in regard to our elderly.  Some of the current commissioners even ran on a Cedarbrook platform.  While new federal regulations now require private bathrooms,  the commissioners just voted to go ahead with shared bathrooms, and apply for a federal waiver.  I've become skeptical about their intentions... Could voting yes on an unacceptable plan be just another way to continue ignoring Cedarbrook and our older residents?

photo by K. Mary Hess

The Fountain Of My Youth

Just west of the Robin Hood Bridge is a fountain which quenched the thirst of my summer days. Built during the WPA era, it overlooked the creek. Although the water was turned off years ago, so now is the view. The weeds and assorted invasives growing are not a riparian buffer. Science says that a buffer has to be 25feet wide to be of any value. A reader described this thin strip of wild growth as neglect, masquerading as conservation. All it does is block both the view and access to the waterway. It denies our current citizens the beauty and experience for which the parks were designed. Although the Wildland's Conservancy would like you to believe that the Allentown Parks are there to be wildlands, in reality they were designed by landscape architects, to provide the citizens of Allentown with what Harry Trexler called serenity. He did also appreciate conservation, but for that he created the Trexler Game Preserve, north of Allentown. There are places in the parks which can accommodate the riparian buffer zones, without compromising the intended public experience of waterway view and access. Riparians could be created and maintained in the western side of Lehigh Parkway, between the pedestrian bridge and Bogerts Bridge. In Cedar Park, the riparian section could be in western side, between the last walking bridge and Cedar Crest Blvd. It's time that the parks were given back to the citizens of Allentown. They are not funded, or intended by our tax dollars and the Trexler Trust,  just to be a venue for the Wildland's Conservancy to harvest grants.  Let a child again giggle by the creek's edge. Let us get back our intended park experience.

reprinted from August of 2013

ADDENDUM: I have lobbied the park department to leave the creek accessible in a couple small areas in Cedar Park.

A Modest Park Proposal

In around 2005, Allentown's park system suffered a major setback. The park and recreation departments were combined. In 2006, out of towner Pawlowski's out of towner managing director hired an out of towner with a background in recreation to be park director. Subsequently, they hired two more directors with an identical background.

Before this recreation obsession, Allentown respected the traditional park system, as designed by Harry Trexler.  Older residents could drive through Trexler Park, and park their car right by the duck pond.

Currently, in all of Cedar Park, there is only one bench by the creek.  The creek banks during the summer are overgrown by the riparian buffers, as dictated by the Wildlands Conservancy. I have lobbied the new park director* to add one more bench, certainly a modest proposal by any standard.

*The park director is a local, with an appreciation of Trexler's legacy

City Hall Promotes Reilly's Apartments

The time has come for the City of Allentown to officially define its relationship with J.B. Reilly's City Center Realty. The company is a  privately owned real estate portfolio.  Allentown's taxpayers are actually subsidizing Reilly, by making up state taxes being diverted to finance his buildings. It is entirely inappropriate for the current edition of Adventure Allentown magazine to feature and promote Reilly's apartments. On page 20-21, Reilly's 520 Lofts is described as upscale with a distinctly creative urban vibe accented with graceful nods to Victorian motifs. Did we pay the city's communication director to write that, or was that copy provided by Reilly's staff?

Understand that Allentown's other investors do not get featured in city publications, nor should they. Understand that Reilly has successfully appealed his tax assessments, and is paying less than the construction costs. Understand that promoting his apartments over that of other investors is totally improper.