When I was born, my parents lived on 17th Street near Queen City Airport. The streets in our neighborhood — Liberator, Coronado and Catalina — were named for some of the World War II planes built there at the Vultee factory. I vaguely remember taking the trolley over the 8th St. bridge for our saturday shopping trips on Hamilton St; I clearly remember taking the bus. The transit station was on south 8th Street, 75 feet from Hamilton. I can't imagine what Max Hess and John Leh would have said had Lanta moved the terminal and customers to 6th and Linden Street, but then again who cares now about a few Asian merchants.
I don't believe there was a 'transit station' on South 8th Street. A bus stop yes, but no facility. Even when trolleys were operated before 1955, there were no 'buildings' devoted to transit. There was the train station at 2nd and Hamilton. There was an intercity bus terminal on south 6th Street 75 feet from Hamilton. There is a parking lot there now where the terminal used to be.
ReplyDeleteOne of the comments that Jack Leh made while he was involved in trying to maintain Allentown as a major shopping district was that Allentown was not 'transit oriented.' That was in The Morning Call, you can go look it up.
So much has been done over the past 60 years that works against public transit: expanded parking, elimination of the trolleys, planning streets for the single-occupancy vehicle and the development of Malls and industrial parks outside of the urban areas. And there is a question about why the community is not transit oriented?
i assure you there was a station, my brother and I would sit there every saturday and wait for the bus back to the southside after watching the matinee at the midway,earl, boyd or rialto theatre. the space may have been in the rear of the building that still sits on the southwest corner, i do not recall it being a separate building, but rather a store front with a ticket counter and seating.
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