Allentown Post Office 1934

In the 1930's, the "New Deal" was good to Allentown. As I noted on earlier posts, our park system was enriched by monumental stone construction under the WPA. We also received one of the architectural gems of our area, the magnificent art deco post office. Constructed during 1933-34, no detail was spared in making the lobby an ageless classic. The floor is adorned with handmade Mercer tiles from Doylestown. Muralist Gifford Reynolds Beal worked thru 1939 portraying the Valley's cultural and industrial history. This incredible 74 year old photograph is the contractor's documentation of the project's progress. The back of the photo states; Taken Sept 1 - 34 showing lobby, floor, screens, desks, completed & fixtures hung

Reprinted from Oct. 25, 2008 

ADDENDUM JUNE 20, 2023:The post office, although an art deco masterpiece, remains for sale. Already the manificent lamp posts by the left front entrance have been looted. While Reilly's City Center Real Estate has purchased and demolished dozens of buildings on Hamilton Street, neither he nor other developers apparently have any interest in city architecture or history. Reilly has already built $One Billion dollars worth of tasteless buildings with our diverted state taxes. Allow me to also publicly criticize the Lehigh County Historical Society, Old Allentown Preservation, The Morning Call, Mayor Tuerk and the Allentown Art Museum for their silence on this crime against our local history.

Simon Gets Brother's Verdict

Louis F. Simon(Right) tell his heavyweight brother that he is proud that he lasted into the thirteenth round of his fight with Joe Louis last night. Mike Jacobs announced after the bout that the two would be rematched in New York on May 16th.

Blogger's Notes: The above is an Associated Press "Wirephoto" that appeared in newspapers across the country on March 22, 1941. The title and caption is the actual Associated Press copy. Mike Jacobs was Joe Louis's manager. Abe Simon actually ended up fighting four more opponents and waiting over a year before the rematch; they met for second time and the title in Madison Square Garden on March 27, 1942. Simon was knocked out in the 6th round, he never fought again. His career record was 36 wins, 25 by knockout, 10 loses, 1 draw.

reprinted from April 2008

Batts At Bat

J.B. Reilly aside, Hasshan Batts is another growth industry in the Lehigh Valley.  Combine our woke times with an enterprising Black activist, and he is in the right place at the right time. Every time you read the news, his Promise Neighborhoods is getting a new grant and another piece of the pie.  Talking of pie, he's now operating food banks in at least three locations...his Union Street headquarters, Hayes Elementary School and in the lower level of Zion Church, where he's serving hot meals.

But this post is motivated by his proposed new location, the former Allentown Toy Company on N. 10th Street. With the appointment of Alan Jennings to the fifth board seat of the Redevelopment Authority, Batts' acquisition of that location seems inevitable.  His Islamic society made a proposal to use the location as a community center.  I say his society, because it's registered at Batts' home address, and doesn't appear to have a congregation. The director of the Redevelopment Authority and her assistant have resigned. Matt Tuerk said the resignations are an opportunity to recast the objectives of the Authority.

I write these posts about Reilly with his NIZ, and Batts with his Promise Neighborhoods, with some speculation... such players are not inclined to share their game plans with this blogger. Allentown is the perfect place for their ambitions. The newspaper has little to gain from going into an investigative mode.  Half of Allentown's population is too impoverished to care, and the other half is too indifferent. 

Both a burden and asset of mine is so much institutional knowledge of Allentown.  I actually did a very small project with the Redevelopment Authority forty years ago. My application was submitted to so much due diligence at the time, I thought that I was applying to be Ambassador to the UN. 

I write these blog posts for those of us who remember how things were done in what I consider better times.

shown above Hasshan Batts and Alan Jennings

CastleRock

CastleRock took place in the cavernous Dorney Park dance-hall, Castle Garden. The "Garden" was built in the early 20's and hosted all the famous big bands of that era. By the late fifties it was called CastleRock. The Philadelphia recording stars, such as Frankie Avalon and Freddy Cannon would routinely perform. By my teenage era, in the early mid 60's, it was mostly disc jockeys. The Park was free, no admission. Pay to park, and maybe a buck or so for the dance-hall.







By then the nightclub tables shown in the photograph were gone, and sitting was around the sides. There were no shootings, and rowdiness was restricted to sneaking on a ride without buying a ticket. The dance-hall overlooked the lake, it was destroyed by a fire on Thanksgiving in 1985.

Above Reprinted from Sept. 10, 2008

ADDENDUM JUNE 15, 2023: In 2008, when I wrote that there were no shootings at the dance hall, little did I know that in 2023 there would multiple homicides before June ends. Forget a hormone filled dance club,  shootings now occur even on playgrounds. Rather than beefing up our police force, we look to social workers and mentor organizations to reduce the violence?  I would feel much safer if our police departments received the funding, rather than organizations that promise to make a difference.

Simon Fearless Against Bomber

The 1941 June edition of Ring Magazine featured the Abe Simon vs Joe Louis fight in March. Editor-writer Nat Fleischer was in awe of Simon's courage against the unbeatable Brown Bomber. Fleischer wrote "They (fans) saw Abe Simon give the Bomber the greatest battle he has had since he won the crown..." Although Simon Lost by TKO in the 13th, this image of Simon grinning at Louis while taking the 8 count in round 7, is one of my favorite photographs of that fight.

reprinted from December 2012

NIZ Rain

For the last decade I have been documenting the NIZ storm which has destroyed Allentown's former mercantile district, just like a tornado in Kansas wipes out buildings.  In addition to photographing the demolition,  I attended city hall meetings with the former merchants, where they were bullied into relinquishing their dreams. I'm sorry to report that none now remain in business, not even on 7th Street.

Yesterday, in regard to the imminent sale of the PPL Tower,  fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare recapped the 2012 Business Matters debate covered by the Morning Call's Bill White.  White dismissed the possibility of the PPL leaving the tower as hysteria.  Myself and another critic, Steve Thode, were accused of making wild claims.  As critical as we were then, it never occurred to me that almost all of the NIZ, with only a few exceptions, would be owned by one man. That man even came to own the Morning Call building itself, which now warehouses cigarettes. His NIZ allows him to collect the state taxes on cigarettes, which formerly went to CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program.

While photographing the demolition of the former Rialto property,  I took shelter from yesterday's rain under the overhang of the former Park & Shop deck on 10th Street, which is now the police garage. I remembered that when I was a boy my mother would park there while shopping.  In Hess's she would have to go up to the 5th floor to get her parking ticket stamped.  There was a lot of merchandise to view on the way up for that free parking validation. There were a lot of stores to pass on the way back to the garage.

shown above demolition of former Rialto property

$100 A Week

In 1935, a Jewish boy earning $35 a week carrying 300 pound blocks of ice, was offered three times more to fight; win, lose or draw. For one hundred dollars a week, Jock Whitney, British aristocrat and sportsman, owned Abe Simon. Abe won his first 14 fights, 12 by knockout. On his climb to fight Louis in 1941 he would knock out 27 opponents, including Jersey Joe Walcott.
reprinted from December 2012 

This blog has produced numerous posts chronicling the Joe Louis boxing era, many featuring Abe Simon, a Jewish heavyweight of the era; Simon and my mother were cousins. Lately, Allentown political shenanigans have allowed me little time and space to visit Madison Square Garden in the early 1940's. During the next couple of weeks I will reprint some of the Simon posts, while still assigning staff to City Hall. One of my attractions to the boxing world is the black and white photography produced during that era. The public would listen to the fights on the radio, and then see the photographs in the newspapers the following day.  I refer fight fans to December of 2012,  which can be found on the archive list on the right sidebar. 

reprinted from December 2014

Allentown Officially Becomes Reillyville

Yesterday the PPL Corporation announced that they are moving into a Reilly NIZ office building and putting the tower for sale.  The tower is more than  just an iconic building, it is the symbol of Allentown, and has been since 1928. 

The first question of course is what will become of the tower?  I suspect that J.B. Reilly has some insight in regard to that question.  With a glut of new office space available,  no commercial entity besides the PPL would have any use for it.  Its future is certainly residential, and its new owner I suspect has already been determined.

The second question is --what is really going on with our diverted taxes and the NIZ? If Reilly's first building at 7th and Hamilton has the room to accommodate the PPL, how much empty space is there in the subsequent buildings? 

Although this post is heavy on the questions and light on the answers, one thing is for certain...the Allentown of pre NIZ no longer exists.

shown above PPL Tower from the era of classic postcards