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.
Reprinted from January 2010
Thanx for the picture of the hall mm, such fond memories¿
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I cannot believe these great stories of our past never get comments. I could honestly care less for all the political mumbo jumbo on here, but I absolutely enjoy looking into the past through the pictures and stories about the area's history that are posted on this blog. They fuel my passion for history and get me searching for more information beyond the few paragraphs written here.
ReplyDeleteI have found myself driving in Allentown looking at intersections and pulling from memory the pictures of yesteryear that are posted here and catch myself thinking "what happened".
If I had a choice, I would certainly choose to live in the era's that are written about here and enjoy the simpler times told about by my elders as well as told in your articles. Keep them coming!
-someone not afraid to post their name ;)