The concrete monolith still stands five stories above Lehigh Street at the Parkway Shopping Center. Currently it sports a clock and a sign for St. Luke's medical offices. It was built in 1953 as the modernistic sign tower for Food Fair supermarket, which then was a stand alone store. Behind it, on South 12th Street was the Black and Decker Factory. The shopping center would not be built to decades later, connecting the former supermarket to the bowling alley built in the 60's. Food Fair was started in the 1920's by Russian immigrant Samuel Friedland in Harrisburg. By 1957 he had 275 stores. 1953 was a rough year for the butcher, baker and candle stick maker; the huge supermarkets were too much competition, even for the bigger independent markets, such as Lehigh Street Superette; it was further east on Lehigh, now the site of a Turkey Hill Market. The sign tower also remains at the 15th and Allen Shopping center, which was another stand alone Food Fair. That parcel remains an independent supermarket. Food Fair would eventually absorb Penn Fruit, which had a market on N. 7th Street, then turn into Pantry Pride. When the Food Fair was built, there was as yet no 15th Street Bridge. Allentown only connected to the south side by the 8th Street Bridge and the Lehigh/Union Street hill. (stone arch bridge, near Regency Tower, was route to West End) Allentown was booming and Mack Trucks were rolling off the line, a block east off Lehigh Street, as fast as they could build them. The factories on S. 12th st. are now flea markets. Mack Headquarters is being sold to a real estate developer. Perhaps those concrete monoliths are the monuments to better times, by those of us who remember.
reprinted from November 2013
Remembered, and not forgotten. I still remember the banner over OTT and Hamilton St. announcing Allentown as the Queen City. Not now, look at what the great scourge brought in: Drugs, thugs and gunfire.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to the Mohican market on 9th st.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a very vague memory - there was an Acme market at 5th and Hamilton. My grandparents lived on Penn St. It's now he city hall.
The automobile made it possible for people to shop at large stores that were not within walking distance. In Emmaus we had a local grocery store about every 2 or 3 blocks. Many remained into the 1970's but then were no longer able to compete. Interesting that the internet is now in the process of replacing many brick and mortar stores, while this will be felt first by goods stores, the food business may be eventually be affected and it is being experimented with now. Much of this has to do with the availability of cheap energy, first to make it possible to drive lengthy distances to shop and now to allow shipping costs to make online purchases reasonable. There is constant change and adaptation, some for the better, some maybe not so mush.
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