Yesterday (repeat post from 2009) I had an amazing experience, I decided to research the WPA items at the Lehigh Valley Historical Society. I found that particular documentation lacking. But, from out of nowhere, an elderly lady handed me a photo from her pocketbook; a picture of the Boat Landing she had taken with a Kodak Brownie camera in the early 1940's. She had the picture with her because she had shown it to several friends who also lamented the loss of our icons.
Today(2009) I went to the park to photograph the still only visible remaining element of that structure, a few steps.
I went over to the other side of the creek and worked my way through the weed wall. There to my utter amazement, I saw that the curved creek walls of the landing have withstood the years of time. Despite decades of neglect by our Park Department, I believe that a half dozen people equipped with a few clippers could unveil a lost treasure. There is a few large trees which have grown on the landing, and there are missing stones, but most of it still exists, waiting only for a few urban archaeologists with an appreciation of what once adorned this park.
ADDENUM: In the fall of 2009, a half dozen people helped me uncover part the boat landing, buried for over 40 years. It ended up requiring much more than a few clippers.. It required pickaxes, shovels, and wheel barrel after wheel barrel of removing earth.
Amazing as this feat was, The Morning Call never wrote one word about it.
UPDATE July 1, 2020: The photograph shown above was from an elderly widow, who took the photo from the island on her first date with her future husband. At that time the island was maintained, with a walking bridge to it. The island now is completely overgrown.
Looking at the photo and seeing the edge of the island in the lower right side, I think the photo was likely taken from the walking bridge you mention.
ReplyDeleteIt also documents how much the island has "grown" over the years, when you compare the waterway in front of the boat landing to the narrow channel that remains today.
Off topic but related to a previous post you made:
ReplyDeleteI saw Alan Jennings penned an Op-Ed to try to pressure the DA into helping with County Controller Mark Pinsley's intrusion into the criminal justice matters.
I guess Jennings feels it's better to join in the race-baiting than to actually present taxpayers with a scorecard of his organization's (lack of) results over many decades.
But Jennings and his organization are among the "sacred cows" in the Valley, who's intentions are always presumed to be good and results don't matter. And our politicians continue to shovel money to his organization to help the poor, despite the fact that Allentown's poverty rate continues to rise year-after-year, after year.
But I suppose all that taxpayer money has taken care of Jennings and his cronies over the years, funding their leftist agenda and creating a city where reliable democrat votes can be harvested at election time.
And that's really what matters to Jennings and the elected officials who fund him.