Up to the mid 1960's, before Allentown started tinkering with urban redevelopment, lower Hamilton Street still teemed with businesses. The City had grown from the river west, and lower Hamilton Street was a vibrant area. Two train stations and several rail lines crossed the busy thoroughfare. Front, Ridge and Second were major streets in the first half of the twentieth century. My grandparents settled on the 600 block of 2nd Street in 1895, along with other Jewish immigrants from Russia and Lithuania. As a boy, I worked at my father's meat market on Union Street. I would have lunch at a diner, just out of view in the photo above. The diner was across from the A&P, set back from the people shown on the corner. A&P featured bags of ground to order 8 O'Clock coffee, the Starbucks of its day.
please click on photo
photocredit:Ed Miller, 1953
reprinted from previous years
Loved showing this picture to my students at Harrison-Morton. They would guess it was San Francisco or NYC, and then would recognize the monument and the PPL building in the background. They were stunned how cool Allentown looked back when.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI love this photo. It brings back so many memories. My father and I would visit the A&P store frequently - I can still smell the 8 O'Clock Coffee, freshly ground and narrow aisles full of groceries and produce. We would venture to that vibrant stretch of Hamilton Street to visit Blum Brothers automotive - my father was big on plastic seat covers for his vehicles and they installed them, and the diner and a little further west, Lucci's Drugstore and of course Glazier's furniture store in the other direction. Thanks for sharing, as always.