The waterway around Union Terrace is divided. Cedar Creek, in addition to running in front of the Amphitheater stage, also runs on the elementary school side of the former ice skating pond. The leg of the creek that connects the two branches runs along the north side of the pond. Two bridges used to cross that creek leg; one for former train branch line and one for park users. The train branch line ended service to Wentz's Memorial Company years ago. The park department has also ended service to park users...The people bridge has also been removed. The park can no longer be entered from Walnut Street.
On the north side of the park along Walnut Street, the steel plates from which the metal skaters were cut, now stand stranded from their cutouts. Between them, across the now bridge-less creek leg, the pond is full of algae.
Union Terrace was the last major WPA project in Allentown. Ice skating at the pond was an Allentown ritual. The park was a former source of pride for all citizens, regardless of where they lived in Allentown.
As an advocate for the traditional park system and the WPA, I get very frustrated by having to use the adjective former so often when writing about our park features.
reprinted from June of 2022
we have lost so much in our city.
ReplyDeleteI walked by there many times when attending Raub.
ReplyDeleteI attended Union Terrace and Raub back in my youth. Does anyone remember the infamous Raub Woods??? What a hangout that was for truants!!!
ReplyDeleteI believe the Raub Woods once ran all the way down to the creek. This, of course, was before they cleared it all to construct what is now Union Terrace Elementary School and what surrounds it.
ReplyDeleteAnd once there was no pond either. I once saw an old picture from the Duck Farm days - ducks all over what would later be the pond facing Union St in the distance which looked like a thin dirt road. A field of grass was across from it, the same field that’d have baseball fields many moons later. And the trees in back of that field where the quarry would be or maybe was already…it all hauntingly didn’t look much different than it’d be many decades later!
I’d love to see an old pic, perhaps taken from across the road, of those Raub Woods right where the elementary school and playground would end up being. And what did the field look like across the road from the woods? Where the main baseball field, football/soccer field, and basketball/volleyball courts would end up being (and why did they tear those down)?
PS - I remember attending UT in the early-’80s hearing a rumor that there was a bear in the Raub Woods and it entered the Raub cafeteria! Can anyone confirm?