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A Dieruff High School social studies teacher would not have to take his class very far for a lesson in Allentown's history. Although never elected, East Side activist Dennis Pearson has been complaining for thirty years that the East Side always get short changed in Public Works. Such was the case in the mid 1930's, during the WPA work in Allentown. Roosevelt's New Deal program built the elaborate walls in the south side's Lehigh Parkway. Central Allentown received the magnificent Lawrence Street stairwell. The culturally elite of west Allentown received the Union Terrace Amphitheater, envisioned for Shakespeare. Pearson's east side got a few scattered steps to nowhere. The steps remained, and thirty years later Allentown built Dieruff High School. With expansions and renovations, some of the steps now adjoin the school. Flash ahead to the summers of 2009 and 2010.
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I lobbied Allentown City Council members to appropriate some of the $millions of dollars in Cedar Park plans to begin preserving the irreplaceable WPA structures, starting to crumble throughout our park system. East Side elected councilman, Michael D'Amore, assured me that he only signed off on the Administrations plan, with the stipulation that the steps in Irving Park-Dieruff area would be restored at the same time. The work in Cedar Park was completed last year, including $millions of dollars with of recreation equipment from catalogs. The deterioration of the steps around Dieruff continues. Now there's a lesson in government!
photos courtesy of Mark Thomas
above reprinted from September of 2011
ADDENDUM JULY 18, 2024:The new Allentown Parknership claims that they will be involved with the WPA structures, among other facets of our park system. For that reason I have applied to be on their board of directors. I know that they will have no other applicants who have been advocating for the WPA for over fifteen years. I will continue the east side step saga in tomorrow's post.
MM - I’m assuming that you will cover this in tomorrow’s follow-on post, but aren’t the steps near Dieruff going to be removed when they build the new practice facility at the park?
ReplyDeleteAlso, off-topic from today’s post (but still park-related), I saw that the city is spraying for mosquitoes due to West Nile Virus concerns.
When I saw that I couldn’t help but wonder how many more mosquitoes are breeding due to the lack of mowing in areas like the parkway. The standing water that now remains in the “no-mow” zones surely only adds to the fertile breeding grounds for the mosquitoes.
While some might say more mosquitoes are great for the bats, fish and other mosquito predators, I guess the welfare of those predators in the spray areas was not as important.
That facility in Irving (Andre Reed) park is far from a done deal. The park should remain open to the public. The students have been using it for decades along side the general public to everyone’s benefit. If the district wants a separate facility of their own closer to Dieruff they own the large practice field along E. Tilghman St one block away.
DeleteNothing would make me more happy than to preserve/restore the beautiful work my GRAND FATHER EISENHARD did in the loved Lehigh Parkway. Our family lived in the Road Runners home for over 50yrs as you might remember. I have so many stories of it all. God bless you in all you do. He also helped BUILD THE PARKWAY along with Earl Price & my Uncle Leon IKE Eisenhard & Uncle Earl E
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