Lunch At Allen

Up to the mid 60's, students at Allen High could leave the building for lunch. Scattered in alley's around the the school, garages had been converted into lunch shops and hangouts. The Hutch was in the alley between 17th and West Streets, in the unit block between Hamilton and Linden. Suzy's was behind the Nurse's Dormitory, between Chew and Turner. Another was across Linden from the Annex. They all had the same basic decor, a few pinball machines, a few tables and a small lunch counter. Most of the business was during lunch period, and before and after school. It's my understanding that occasionally a kid or two would skip school and hangout all day. Today these garages, turned into luncheonettes, have long ago reverted back to garages. Most of the current residents of West Park probably don't even know about this commercial history right behind their houses. I missed photo day at Allen for my yearbook, but if anybody has a picture of the gang from the Hutch, I'd appreciate a copy.

Reprinted from Sept. 24, 2008

When Neon Was King

During the glory days of Hamilton Street, when it came to neon, bigger was better. No store had a bigger sign than Hess's, and that was appropriate. When the city planners decided to built the canopy, that was the end of the great neon age for Allentown. That structure bisected the building's facades, and the vertical signs had to go. Since then we have progressed into sign regulations. Shopping is not a primary part of the new Hamilton Street transformation. Let's move this discussion around the corner to Allentown's new Hispanic shopping district on 7th Street. Hispanic Shopping District is my designation, not the city's. I call it that, because that's what it is. The street is being managed by Peter Lewnes, who is doing a good job. He's giving facade grants and sign guidance. The buildings end up with a historic look, and a very professional  sign. Although it's neat, clean and presentable, it's not too exciting. Of course the City Fathers don't want too much excitement, as the people from Catasauqua drive in to the new arena. These new subsidized merchants are on a short leash. City inspectors remind them that besides for OPEN signs, no neon is permitted, and it must be inside the store. Now I know that I'm not a paid consultant,  and there's no grant involved with this idea, but how about letting our new merchants put up some neon?How about letting them pursue the same dreams as the merchants once did on Hamilton Street. How about lengthening that leash?

above reprinted from October of 2018

Parkway's Keystone Deteriorating

When the wall along the entrance road to Lehigh Parkway collapsed, the entrance had to be closed, until they could construct a new wall. The closure wasn't because of the missing upper portion acting as a guard rail, it was because of the lower portion, which was a retaining wall holding up the roadway itself. In the mid 1930's, the road was built by the WPA, by cutting into the side of a steep ravine leading down to the Little Lehigh Creek. It was essential to shore up the exposed side of the road with a wall.

Halfway down the road is the centerpiece we call the Double Stairway. Steps from two sides lead down from the road, to the bridle path and creek below. Although very architectural, it too is an elaborate retaining structure for the road. This architectural masterpiece is in structural jeopardy. Although the vertical walls are in decent shape, the problem is the landings, both at the top and down each set of stairs. These flats surfaces have degraded, and water is seeping down into the steps below, undermining the structure from within.

The Double Stairway was designed in 1928 by one of the leading landscape architects in the United States. He was commissioned to design this masterpiece by General Harry Trexler. The stock crash of 1929 and the Great Depression put off the construction until Roosevelt's New Deal in 1935, when the WPA utilized the blueprints.

Allentown could never afford to create such an icon now, nor can we afford to lose it from neglect.

reprinted periodically since 2010

UPDATE OCTOBER 25, 2019: Although the years have passed, and now I even have a good rapport with the current mayor and park director,  the stair landings still have not been repaired and continue to deteriorate.  Worse yet, it is my understanding that there is money in the budget for the repair, but it is being delayed to study the problem. The previous administration studied the entrance wall, until it collapsed. What these stairs need is less study and some immediate attention from a masonry contractor.

photocredit:molovinsky

Allentown's Hole

Allentown doesn't have much of a political memory. The Morning Call changes out its reporters about every 6 months, and most political activists eventually have lobotomies out of frustration. Never the less, some of you may remember Heydt's hole. After he torn down Hess's, the hole sat there for 18 months while a group of investors failed to find financing for a amateur hockey arena. (The one built later in Bethlehem folded and now is for sale) Now, eight years later, Pawlowski has a hole. Announced with great fanfare, a local developer would build the Cosmopolitan on the site of Sal's Spaghetti House. It makes me nervous when they name a restaurant before they built it. Anyway, Pawlowski bought Sal's, and the city paid for the demolition.(Through one of its Authorities) Then the city gave the Cosmopolitan a $50,000 restaurant grant. Yes, we gave a brick-less name $50,000. I think some of the city puff bloggers were even making reservations for dinner. Back to the hole; as a sidewalk supervisor I was surprised to see the excavators dig under the adjoining Sovereign Building and pour pylons under its footers. Perhaps they were mining, mining for grants. Those pylons have enabled the developer to remove his equipment. and let that hole sit there now for over two months, with no danger to the adjoining building. I'd say about $50,000 worth of work has been done. Last month the city applied for a low cost Liquor License for the Cosmopolitan. Last week, after the Pawlowski Administration had an embarrassing "no comment" in regard to Johnny Manana's, a backhoe was moved back to outside the Cosmopolitan site. Is that backhoe a Pawlowski Prop? Does the developer sense the time is ripe for renewed grants? Does Pawlowski need a new ribbon to cut? *

* There could be legitimate reasons why construction has halted on the Cosmopolitan. However, last month the developer's attorney declined to comment on an explanation.

reprinted from August of 2008 

UPDATE March 7, 2017 The developer(s) would go on to build the high end restaurant with their own capital. It was built pre-NIZ, and represented more faith in Allentown than many others shared at that time, including this blogger.

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 24, 2019: This will be my final post of a three part series about the former short lived Cosmopolitan Restaurant.  In 2008 and 2017 this post was titled Pawlowski's Hole.  I have changed the title to address a downside of the NIZ...modern buildings, such as the PPL Plaza and the Cosmopolitan,  cannot compete against the tax subsidized NIZ and are vacant.  Of course the real problem is that the NIZ is not just tax subsidized, but rather paid for completely with our state taxes.  So, while the NIZ has created a real estate empire for one man,  despite a $billion dollars of new buildings,  Allentown residents still had a 27% tax increase.... That is one bad joke on the taxpayers.

photo/molovinsky

Molovinsky, The Morning Call and News

The article about Hooks Seafood restaurant closing states that this type of failure isn't unusual in an urban renewal area, according to experts. So says the Morning Call.  The article also states that The $6 million renovation of the long-closed Sal's Spaghetti House included a crystal chandelier from Hess's department store.... As you can see from my photograph above, Sal's wasn't renovated. The long closed former spaghetti house was demolished, and a new building was constructed in its place.  Now, I can understand the paper not knowing this, after all, the building is over a quarter block away from the newspaper building.  Assuming that people at the Morning Call read the paper, apparently nobody caught the error, twice. This was the second time in about a week that this misinformation was printed. However, this post is about the important part of the story, not covered by the paper.

The restaurant was built pre-NIZ. Save for a $50,000 city grant, the entire cost was borne by the owner. It happens that the owner and his wife were retired from a very lucrative business, and always wanted to own a high end restaurant. Opened as the Cosmopolitan, it was high end indeed.  When that failed to attract enough well heeled, it was transformed into the more price friendly Hook Seafood. However, with the NIZ and Reilly's hospitality group of eateries, the market was now over-saturated.

The owner of the restaurant when asked about lack of foot traffic downtown stated, "I'm not going to get judgmental or say anything negative." Those are traits that nobody accuses this blogger of having.

photocredit:molovinsky- site of the former Sal's Spaghetti House being prepared for new foundation

reprinted from March of 2017

Sign Of The Time

As Allentown eagerly awaits the opening of the Cosmopolitan Restaurant and banquet facility on 6th Street, lets go back in time. Before the former Sal's Spaghetti House was demolished on that parcel, preservationists from Bucks County saved the historic sign. Had the couple been somewhat more familiar with Allentown's history, they may have realized that the sign was neither very historic or iconic.

Before Hamilton Street was bi-sected architecturally by the now gone canopy, the street was lined with large neon signs, many of which were much more elaborate than Sal's; That sign became historic by default. Interestingly, the Sal's sign for most of it's


business days, said Pat's. Pat's and the sign go back to the mid 1950's. In the late 70's, the business was taken over by Sal, and the P and T were simply changed to an S and L. But time goes on; Sal's family is now in the sauce business and have a most interesting website.

1963 Pat's advertisement courtesy of Larry P
Hamilton Steet watercolor by Karoline Schaub-Peeler
photo of Sal's sign by molovinsky                                                 

reprinted from 2010

A Meat Market In Easton

When I was in high school, on weekends and summers I would work at my father's meat market on 4th Street in Easton. Taking those curves on Rt. 22 at high speed was just an extra high school thrill, while getting and going from the job. The Market has long been replaced by an insurance agency. At that time my uncle owned the Mohican Market across the street.  Now, 55 years later,  I still occasionally take the trip, but much, much, much slower on the curves.

While I'm in the neighborhood, it's nice to park along the convergence of the Lehigh and Delaware.  The dam there gives me great pleasure, especially since Easton told the Wildlands Conservancy to take a hike when they proposed tearing it down.  Allentown would have said sure, like they did in Lehigh Parkway.

Yesterday Larry Holmes Drive was closed to host a food truck festival. I felt bad for the vendors...  between the rain and the cold,  the visitors were sparse.  When I told an Easton policeman that I came for the river view, he encouraged me to patronize the food trucks while I was there.  I thought that it was nice that he was concerned for the vendors.  I almost asked him if he remembered the Melbern Meat Market,  but then realized that he wouldn't yet be born for another 25 years.

photocredit:The Morning Call

Back In The Bunker Fighting Allentown Again

When I started molovinsky on allentown in 2007, one of its missions was to expose Pawlowski for the phony that he was. At that time, community activists and fellow bloggers were still entranced by him. I was accused of harboring sour grapes, because I was an independent opponent in the 2005 election. Within two years, blogger Bernie O'Hare starting noticing that little people in Pawlowski's way were squashed. We joined forces about Lanta and the bus stops, about the abuse of the minority merchants and other assorted bruised victims. During the Pawlowski trial, the FBI agent mentioned Bernie's blog, and Bernie subsequently credited my influence on him.

Yesterday I participated in an intensely heated court hearing for a homeowner, who I believed was being harassed to accommodate a code supervisor's friend.  A code officer testified that he noticed the violation over the fence from the adjoining property,  which is owned by this friend of the supervisor.  This adjoining property is a mess, but no enforcement ever seems to occur there. The court certainly tried to accommodate the city, by allowing the inspector to cite an item not on the complaint. The judge was finally forced to find the homeowner not guilty, when she produced a permit from 2002, demonstrating that the item was indeed grandfathered. Although the city had falsely testified earlier in the hearing that no such permit was ever issued,  the judge seemed to have no issue with that, or the other improprieties.  In addition to the code officer, the code supervisor himself attended the hearing. Neither the Director of Community Development nor the mayor were interested in my concern that the rights of a homeowner were being violated. I'm particularly offended by the notion of public officials using the machinery of the state to settle personal grievances.

During those pre FBI years, I referred to having a bunker to take refuge in. After the recent dealings with community development and code, I have once again opened the bunker, and am stocking it with provisions,  in case it proves necessary.

photo of blogger in bunker