Allentown Soccer History

Guest Post by Rolf Oeler America has long been famously known as the Land of Opportunity for those born both here as well as abroad. And so, once upon a time in a blue collar, industrial city called Bethlehem, a local Hungarian immigrant businessman named WILLIE EHRLICH dared to pursue his own particular vision of American Exceptionalism. A feat many of his contemporary countrymen would have been inclined to believe impossible — to capture a championship in professional soccer using a good supply of homegrown players from right here in the Lehigh Valley. The upstart PENNSYLVANIA STONERS — employing a trio of products from the local high schools of Freedom and Liberty in Bethlehem as well as Louis E. Dieruff in Allentown — spectacularly made Ehrlich’s dream a reality in just two years’ time when the club captured the American Soccer League title in 1980. Professional soccer’s popularity in the United States had already peaked by the time the Pennsylvania Stoners contested their first league match and Ehrlich, who was named the A.S.L. Coach of the Year twice, would incur financial losses of almost a million dollars in only three short seasons. But the logo of ALPO, a local dog food manufacturer, delightfully decorated the team’s jerseys while a memorable bumper sticker — “Fifteen Games On One Tank Of Gas” — colorfully adorned the backs of many cars in the area to celebrate the shoe-string budget. And the team was triumphant on the pitch most of the time, as well; in short, it was a whole lot of fun while it lasted. There can be no question that Ehrlich’s long-gone creation left a lasting legacy which exists to this very day in the Lehigh Valley by fostering an affinity and appreciation for The Beautiful Game to an entire generation of fans in the region — including a certain, unnamed 11-year-old kid who would later play his high school soccer in the very same stadium where the Pennsylvania Stoners used to perform and then, many moons on down the line, get his hands on a blog. The memories are quite numerous and include a special, rain-soaked evening in April of 1980 on which a franchise record 8,300 people braved the elements at the since-remodeled as well as renamed Allentown School District Stadium (which had a capacity for 20,000 at that time) in the West End to witness the city’s own Polish cannon, ROMAN URBANCZUK, fire the game-winning goal in double overtime as the Pennsylvania Stoners dispatched the visiting Miami Americans 1-0 to open the A.S.L. title-winning campaign. The 21-year-old native of eastern Europe had been honored as a high school All-American at Dieruff on the East Side of town before signing his first pro contract to play the 1978/79 season with the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League. Urbanczuk, who also appeared with the Philadelphia Fever in the old M.I.S.L. during his playing days, would become the one and only player to play every season with the Pennsylvania Stoners during their four-year stay in the since-departed American Soccer League. Urbanczuk went on later that season to score the only goal of the game at ASD Stadium when the eventual A.S.L. champion shutout the incoming Golden Gate Gales in early August, but that would be another Stoners Story for some other day … Guest Post by Rolf Oeler

The above was a guest post by Rolf Oeler in January of 2012, and is reprinted today in his memory.

A Tailor From North Street

The Allentown Housing and Development Corp. recently purchased a home at 421 North St. That block of North Street was destroyed by fire, and the agency has built a block of new houses on the street's south side; it will next develop the other side of the street. The deed transfer caught my attention because Morris Wolf lived in the house in 1903. Wolf signed up with the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on July 18, 1861, in Philadelphia, when he was 22 years old. He was a private in Company A, of the 3rd Cavalry. This unit was also known as the 60th Regiment and was later called Young's Kentucky Light Cavalry.It defended Washington, D.C., until March 1862, then participated in many of the war's most famous battles: Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Wolf had signed up for three years and was mustered out Aug. 24,1864.

Recently, to commemorate Memorial Day, the local veterans group placed more than 500 flags at Fairview Cemetery. If that wasn't enough of a good deed, the group also set upright more than 300 toppled grave markers. Visiting Fairview recently, I saw they had not overlooked the graves of either Mr. Wolf, or another veteran, Joseph Levine. I have concerned myself with Allentown's Fairview Cemetery for the last few years. I first became interested in the small Jewish section, called Mt. Sinai. This was the first organized Jewish cemetery in Allentown. Currently, all the synagogues have their own cemeteries, and Mt. Sinai has been mostly unused for many decades.

Mr. Wolf lies next to his wife, Julia, who died in 1907. Morris would live on for 30 more years, passing away in 1937, at age 98.
Mr. Levine, a World War II veteran, and his wife, Ethel, were the first and last people to be buried there after almost 25 years of inactivity. When Ethel died at age 93 in 2000, it was the first burial at Mt. Sinai since 1976. Joseph was 103 years old when he passed away in 2006.

The Housing and Development Corp. and North Street are now part of Allentown's new neighborhood initiative called Jordan Heights.Although soon there will be a new house at 421 North St., there is a history that will remain with the parcel. Once a tailor lived there who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.

reprinted from 2010

The Lehigh Valley's Lost Morality

One of the headlines in today's paper is that the Allentown Planning Board approved J.B. Reilly's new apartments on the former parking lot next to Symphony Hall. Never mind that Symphony Hall expressed its displeasure at losing the convenience of an adjoining surface lot.  The Parking Authority, serving what is masquerading as progress in Allentown, cooperated with the sale.  Never mind that the Community Music School, primary tenant of Symphony Hall, said that it would relocate without that lot.  Allentown's commissions and authorities are mere bobbleheads.

Not only has the Parking Authority played ball with private developers using progress as an excuse, the Park Department compromised itself to cover Pawlowski's purchase of unnecessary land, at a greatly inflated price.  Isn't it wonderful to add a park or two when the department cannot afford to maintain what they already have.  While the collapsed portion of the wall was repaired so that Lehigh Parkway could reopen,  the rest of the wall was never repointed,  and the double stairwell is falling apart.

It's not just Allentown officials compromising themselves, it has become standard procedure in the valley.  The South Whitehall Commissioners inflated the price to repair Wehr's Dam by 1000%, to justify a referendum to accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy.   Call these things progress,  but it's really just excuses for corrupt agendas.

above reprinted from September of 2016 

ADDENDUM MAY 27, 2022: It's easy for corruption to masquerade as progress. By corruption, I don't necessarily mean illegal or indictable offenses, but rather the compromise of public assets...Let's call it soft corruption. Fifty years ago the Parking Authority was started to bail out the influential owners of the over the hill Park & Shop. The malls had opened on MacArthur Rd., and the demand for parking in downtown dwindled rapidly. However, the surface lots would provide convenient parking for the more tenants and their cars living in center city. There are dozens of possible posts about the shady deals of the Parking Authority over the ensuing decades, but we stay with this abridged version while I skip ahead forty five years to the NIZ. Those surface lots, although serving the public purpose of neighborhood parking, provided easy cheap building lots for the new generation of connected movers and shakers... No buildings to buy and demolish. The public is simply told that parking decks are progress. 

The wall in the Parkway was finally finished, but the landings on the double stairway remain to be fixed. The Community Music School is losing their parking once again at their new location.  If the Parking Authority still owns any lots, it's only because no developer has yet expressed an interest in it.  South Whitehall, only because of a completely new dais of commissioners, will finally repair Wehr's Dam.

On another note, new mayor Tuerk seems to be a populist. Yesterday someone mentioned his open office door policy to me. However, I seemingly have turned into a persona-non-grata, rather quickly even for me, with this new administration.

Mapping Allentown's Past

The map, partially shown above, was produced by the Nathan Nirenstein Company of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1929. His firm specialized in engineering maps of various center cities on the eastern seacoast. The map is 22X30, and expands out from 7th and Hamilton for 2 1/2 blocks east and west,  2 blocks north and south. The map includes names of both the owner of the building, and the merchant/tenant occupying the space, if different.

While numerous small banks are shown on both Hamilton and the side streets, the coming Depression surely culled that herd. Allentown City Hall and police station are still on Linden Street, while the post office is at 6th and Turner. Two large hardware stores, Young and Hersh, are on Hamilton Street.

The buildings are owned by hundreds of different people.  What will future generations think when they see a 2016 map, and all the buildings are owned by just a few people?

above reprinted from September of 2016

ADDENDUM MAY 26, 2022: Although I celebrate neither my birthday nor holidays, this is an anniversary announcement of sorts. This blog started fifteen years ago today, I have produced it every weekday since. I have chronicled the commercial history of the city, recent (2005-2015) corruption and loose ethics at city hall, and the subsequent federal investigation thereof. I have also chronicled the unique Allentown specific NIZ, and the transfer of the business district into the hands of essentially one person. I have chronicled the Morning Call's complicity and silence on this unique situation. 

On a calmer note, I have championed for the traditional park system, its waterways with dams included, and the WPA structures from the 1930's. 

Although this is no format for popularity or invitations,  I like to think that it is nevertheless a contribution.

When Allentown Worked

Regular readers of this blog know that I often visit Allentown's better days of the past. I even belong to a nostalgia group, where someone recently asked where everyone's parents worked. Many group members are in their 50's and 60's. Here was the question; When we grew up the best jobs for our dad's was the Bethlehem steel and mack trucks unless they were lawyers or doctors or had another profession occupation I know my my mom worked in a factory all her life and I think most of them have closed. Where did you mom and dad work and are the companies are open? Over 90 people responded, actually constituting a survey. In current Allentown, this would be a study, which taxpayers would have to pay for; Here, it's on the house, no charge. Fourteen of the fathers worked at Bethlehem Steel, while five worked at Mack Trucks, and five worked retail on Hamilton Street. The others worked at Allentown's many other industries, one or two here and there. Only two respondents said that their fathers weren't much for working. Twenty mothers were stay at home, while eight worked in various sewing factories. The remainder worked as teachers, nurses, factory workers and various other jobs. One person wrote, "My parents sound like the scene you described. My dad worked at Beth Steel and my mom at Penn State Mills on a sewing machine. They owned their own home and sent me to college where I graduated without the burden of a loan. Thanks, Mom and Dad." Shown above was the General Electric plant on S. 12th Street, just beyond the old Mack 5C.

reprinted from November of 2013.

ADDENDUM October 21, 2016: There is a current proposal to convert the enormous Adelaide Mill into apartments. Although, we hear catch words like loft and middle class, that won't happen; The size and location of the building,  dictate more young, single mothers and children, living in a former factory now broken up into an urban motel. There is something ironic about a former place of production now being a warehouse for people. 

ADDENDUM MAY 25, 2022: The original post was written in 2013. The above update hails from 2016, and here we are again in 2022. In addition to this blog, I now administer the facebook group  Allentown Chronicles. It's another local history group, but I also allow non-partisan politics and social commentary, which in these polarized times occasionally results in somewhat of a commotion. Sometimes people threatened to quit, or even start their own group.

Tonight Allentown City Council is meeting to decide what to do with $39 Million in unspent stimulus funds. Imagine with this happening all over the country, how many $Billions were squandered? Anyway, the public is invited to attend the meeting and speak their two cents. My input would be to amortize it over a number of years and freeze the city tax rate. However, tonight's reality will be a parade of do-gooders, presenting one cause after another...affordable housing, alternatives to police, gender identity equality and any/all other flavors of current social engineering. 

Yesterday's profound tragedy in Texas will put a local violence reduction program front and center, but my preference remains with traditional law enforcement support, moderate gun reform* and enhanced security for our schools.

*Giffords Law Center

The Dinosaurs Of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards, which are still on the same avenue, but not before I photographed them.

reprinted from 2011

photocredit:molovinsky

Observations From An Old Allentown Meat Market

Card carrying members of this blog know that in addition to being a son of a bitch, i'm also the son of a butcher. Because my father had a meat market, I was impressed when Wegmans opened about 15 years ago. They raised the bar for local supermarket chains. Getting on their parking lot the day before Thanksgiving was a fool's errand, until this year. On Wednesday there were plenty of spaces, I couldn't even describe the store as very crowded. What happen? The simple answer would be more competition, with Hamilton Crossings and their new offerings. I actually think that  something else was also in play.

For the last several years, Wegmans had indulged in one remodeling project after another. Although new, changing and different might appeal to their clientele in upstate New York, I don't think that they understood local Pennsylvania Dutch thinking. Make it do, wear it out, use it up, do without has been the mentality here for generations. I found the continuous remodeling annoying, and with each improvement there seemed to be less customers.

This blog has received some complaints, mostly from my distressed Democratic readers, about straying too far from the valley with my recent election posts. I wouldn't expect to hear that beef about this entry.  

above reprinted from November of 2016

ADDENDUM MAY 23, 2022: Perhaps the biggest change yet at Wegmans occurred this year, moving the wine and beer department into the store's center. The real disruption of this change was rearranging the food into five less aisles. A growing complaint seems to be less selection as the store keeps pushing more and more of their own store brand.

Politically, this was one of the most interesting primary elections in my memory. Did the Republicans nominate someone for governor who is too far to the right to take advantage of the dissatisfaction with Harrisburg to win? Did they also jeopardize their chance to keep the Senate seat Republican? Back in the family meat market days, I might have worked something in about a ring bologna toss and the election, but now-a-days such references would not be understood.

Using A Bad Lesson Well Taught In Philadelphia

Back on May 4th, before the death in police custody in Minneapolis, I wrote about Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.  She instructed the police force not to arrest for minor infractions, like theft and prostitution, during the virus crisis. Large groups of young people were running amok in center city Philadelphia convenience stores,  scooping up everything their backpacks could hold. Meanwhile at City Hall, woke mayor Jim Kenney stayed silent about this decline in civilization. Only after a couple weeks, after a merchant and citizen backlash, did Outlaw and Kenney finally reverse policy.

Philadelphia inner city kids were taught a bad lesson by their police commissioner and mayor. 

Perhaps with that lesson fresh in their mind, some of them may have graduated to the looting this past weekend.

My first reaction to the looting on Walnut and Chestnut Streets was that the police must have stood down. How could looters smash windows and enter a Wells Fargo Bank without being stopped? How could all that theft and destruction only result in 13 arrests Saturday night?

I realize that there are a limited number of police and that Philadelphia is a large city. While I can't pass judgement on the police response, I will on the looters shown above. I do not believe that their thinking centered on George Floyd and institutional racism, but rather about what they could steal.

Here in the Lehigh Valley, the mayors and police chiefs conveyed their commitment to social justice.  But more importantly,  the local protestors expressed their hopes and solidarity in a lawful manner.

photocredit:Steven Falk/Philadelphia Inquirer 

above reprinted from May of 2020

ADDENDUM MAY 20, 2022: I expect that between now and November we will hear about the feuds between Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, implying that Shapiro wants to be tougher on crime. While Krasner might actually be more progressive than Shapiro, that's saying little to nothing to those of us wanting more real security on streets across Pennsylvania. Last month Shapiro told Al Dia that “We simply do not do enough to address systemic poverty,”  While Shapiro's commitment to direct more funding into poverty programs will sell well in center city Philadelphia, my vote will go to a candidate advocating for more law and order.