Temporary Inconvenience

Urban renewal projects are nothing new to Allentown. Every couple decades some Mayor thinks he has a brighter idea. In a previous post, I showed the historic Lehigh and Union Street neighborhood, totally destroyed by city planners. Today, an under used Bank calling center sits awkwardly alone on that Lehigh Street hill. The picture above shows another hill of merchants and residents, fed to a mayor's bulldozer. The picture is from 1953, and shows Hamilton Street, from Penn Street down toward the railroad stations. At that time we still had two stations, The Lehigh Valley Railroad and The New Jersey Central. The current closed bar and restaurant occupies the Jersey Central. Everything on Hamilton Street, west of the bridge over the Jordan creek, with the exception of the Post Office, was demolished up to Fifth Street. Government Center would be built on the north side of the street, and a new hotel on the south, to accommodate the many anticipated visitors. Recently we had to remove and replace the facade of the county courthouse, which leaked since it was constructed. The hotel is now a rooming house.

Unannounced plans are underway for a new hotel to service anticipated visitors to Pawlowski's Palace of Sports. It will be up to some future blogger to document how that hotel becomes a rooming house.

reprinted from July of 2011 

UPDATE JANUARY 11, 2022: When I wrote the above post over a decade ago, I didn't foresee the wholesale destruction of the mercantile district into an urban office park. I did however report that the office park was being essentially owned by one man. After J.B. Reilly dominated the NIZ office park,  that legislation was relaxed to also allow his apartment complexes. While those apartments were hyped for young office workers by the Morning Call, reports on the ground indicate a less affluent clientele. That tenant base, for better or worse, will determine the success or failure of this latest urban redevelopment in Allentown.