Allentown's Vanishing History

A reader sent me the above image last night. It looks down the hill from 7th and Hamilton, north, toward Linden Street. He has been attempting to locate the old Lafayette Radio store on 7th street, because of a pleasant memory from his childhood. By my day, the store had moved onto the southern side of the 700 block of Hamilton Street. History is quickly succumbing to the wreaking ball in Allentown. All the buildings shown above, on the left or west side of 7th Street, have been knocked down for the arena. Most of the buildings on the photo's right side are also gone. I suspect the few remaining ones will be gone soon, as they have been recently purchased in speculation of the Transformation Phrase 2, the Event Center. With the departure of Salomon Jewelry, Tucker Yarn remains Hamilton Street's last remaining business from the glory days. It's first store, on 7th Street, can be seen on the left side of the above photo.

The above image can be found in Doug Peters' Lehigh Valley Transit