Lehigh Parkway is a large, 629-acre public park along the Little Lehigh Creek in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the most prominent park in the city and follows the Little Lehigh Creek southward for three miles from center city Allentown to Cedar Crest Boulevard in neighboring Emmaus.
According to The Morning Call , an Allentown-based newspaper, "The idea for creating Lehigh Parkway first emerged in 1922" during a meeting between the city council, the city's chamber of commerce and the city planning commission. The head of the planning commission at that time, Harry Clay Trexler, had a longstanding interest in expanding the city's parks system, and had overseen the creation of the city's West Park in 1907. Embarking on the development of a comprehensive system of parks for the benefit of Allentown residents, city leaders subsequently hired B. Antrim Haldeman to serve as their planning consultant, which resulted in the planning commission's purchase of land along the banks of the Little Lehigh Creek in 1928. The first Lehigh Parkway contract was awarded to contractor George H. Hardner on September 9, 1930, in the amount of $46,170 to build a one-and-a-half-mile concrete road. Trexler then donated roughly thirty acres of land from his trout hatchery, and encouraged friends and other civic leaders to donate portions of their property for use as park land. Among those contributing were the Good Shepherd Home, John Leh, Mrs. Leonard Sefing, and Colonel E. M. Young. The majority of the park's development was ultimately made possible with federal funding and support from the Works Progress Administration, and took place between 1936 and 1940. [1]
Controversy erupted at a city council meeting in January 1971 when a large group of city residents opposed a proposal by the Allentown Council of Youth to sponsor a series of rock concerts at the parkway during the summer of 1972. [2] During that same decade, the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society named the Lehigh Parkway as "an excellent spot to observe vireos, warblers, thrushes, and other birds which prefer a second growth deciduous habitat during the spring migration." [3]
The park features many scenic exercising trails in addition to bridle paths, a shooting range, and many fishing locations. The park includes the Lil-Le-Hi Trout Nursery, which hatches over 30,000 mature trout each year. The Museum of Indian Culture is located in the parkway.
A disc golf course was added in 2005. [4]
In 2017, the Lehigh Parkway was listed by The Morning Call as one of fifteen great places for joggers to run in the Lehigh Valley. [5]
Each Christmas season, the city of Allentown puts on an annual holiday light display in Lehigh Parkway called "Lights in the Parkway".
Lehigh County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 374,557. Its county seat is Allentown, the state's third-largest city after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Allentown is a city in Lehigh County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 125,845 at the time of the 2020 census.
The Lehigh River is a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pattern from the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania through Allentown and much of the Lehigh Valley before joining the Delaware River in Easton.
Henry Clay Trexler was an American industrialist, businessman, and major philanthropist who contributed to the economic development of Allentown, Pennsylvania and the surrounding Lehigh Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He bequeathed the majority of his estate to create the Harry C. Trexler Trust, which has since dispensed more than $150 million in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
Little Lehigh Creek is approximately 24.0 miles (38.6 km) long and is located in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is sometimes referred to as the Little Lehigh River. It is the largest tributary of the Lehigh River.
Cedar Crest Boulevard, colloquially known as Cedar Crest and The Boulevard, is a major north-south highway in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. South of Interstate 78 (I-78), the road is part of Pennsylvania Route 29. North of it, the road becomes State Route 1019.
The Lehigh Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels that carries the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension under Blue Mountain north from U.S. Route 22 in the Lehigh Valley to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area between mileposts 70.7 to 71.5.
Jordan Creek is a 34.1-mile-long (54.9 km) tributary of Little Lehigh Creek in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
The Allentown School District is a large, urban public school district located in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The district is the fourth-largest school district in Pennsylvania as of the 2016-17 academic year.
Lehigh County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1904, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting the history of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The Historical Society and Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum are located at 432 West Walnut Street in Allentown.
The culture of Allentown, Pennsylvania dates back to the settlement of the city and the surrounding Lehigh Valley in the early 1700s by Germans of the Protestant Lutheran, Moravian, and Reformed faiths, who fled religious persecution and war in Europe to settle in Allentown and its surrounding towns and communities. Before their arrival, the region had been historically inhabited by Lenape Native American tribes.
The Allentown Masonic Temple is an historic Masonic building located in the city of Allentown in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
Swabia Creek is a tributary of Little Lehigh Creek in Berks and Lehigh Counties in the eastern Pennsylvania region of the Lehigh Valley.
The American Parkway is an arterial street in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The street connects Allentown's central core with Pennsylvania Route 987, U.S. Route 22, and Lehigh Valley International Airport. The road existed in incomplete form in two segments for over 25 years—from center city Allentown at Hamilton Street to Front Street, and then on the east side of the Lehigh River from North Dauphin Street east to Nelson and Columbia Streets—until the completion of the American Parkway bridge on November 24, 2015.
The Trexler Nature Preserve is an 1,108-acre county park (448 ha) owned and maintained by Lehigh County in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. The preserve is situated in Lowhill Township and North Whitehall Township and the land that comprises the preserve was originally purchased between 1901 and 1911 by local industrialist General Harry Clay Trexler.
The Shoppes at Trexler, formerly Trexler Mall, is an open-air shopping center and former enclosed community shopping mall in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania.
