Feb 20, 2015

Lehigh Valley History, A Thing Of Wonder Gone

The former greenhouse at the current Trexler Park was the pride of Harry and Mary Trexler. The General was very specific in his will about its future;
I, Harry C. Trexler declare this to be my last Will and Testament: ......into the Treasury of the City of Allentown, for the perpetual maintenance of said Park, (Trexler) as well as the Greenhouse thereon located. This bequest shall include all the plants and other contents of said Greenhouse (1929)
Although nobody in charge of Allentown remembers, the greenhouse was a thing of wonder. Full of banana trees and other tropical plants, it was a true escape from winter for all visitors. Its demolition was a project that the Wildlands Conservancy would have loved. The park director at the time touted all the money in maintenance to be saved. He then took that projected money and planted the southeast section of the park along Cedar Creek in natural species. Last year Allentown Park Department cut down all those trees planted at the time, and we now have nothing to show for our loss of the greenhouse.

Flash ahead twenty years, and South Whitehall Township will demolish another thing of wonder, if not stopped. The Wildlands Conservancy paid an engineering firm to compromise their credibility with an absurd report, on how expensive it would be to keep Wehr's Dam. I will not let the dam go quietly.

7 comments:

  1. A little moralistic tone struck in today's Morning Know-It-All, complete with new photos of the frozen Jordan Creek. The same tired story about the fish need to be able to swim the creek...LOL

    There wont be water in the creek without the dam- the dam is the sole reason for water in the creek behind it at all. I guess we have to educate these fools about carbonate rock and fugitive stream phenomenae, which are not rare and occur from the Schnecksville area on east.

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  2. I remember Daddona had the Trexler Memorial Park Greenhouse torn down in the early 1980s.

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  3. @11:18, daddona had nothing to do with that decision. the greenhouse was torn down in the mid 90's, at the urging of the then park director donald marushak. at the same time he spend $750,000 planting the buffer along the creek, which is now gone. ironically, longwood gardens spend $750,000 that same year to build their new greenhouse.

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  4. We need to show en force for whichever meeting is the most appropriate. Insofar as the dam is concerned, I am not against civil disobedience.

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  5. i have been informed and provided with documentation that the greenhouse was demolished in 1985

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  6. Who was the mayor in 1985?

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  7. @7:37, although daddona was the mayor, and the trexler trust signed off on the plan, the demolition was pushed by the park director, don marushak.

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