Category:Hanging Gardens, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The "Hanging Gardens" of Allentown are flower-filled bowls that decorate the street lights of the city's Central Buisness District.

The decorated street lamps are the result of several initiatives in the early 20th Century. One was called the "City Beautiful" movement. Based on what was taking place in Europe- primarily England, France and Germany- it was a belief that cities needed to be made both orderly and decorative. Trees and broad boulevards rather than crowded, narrow streets were advocated. Street vistas instead of clutters of signs was the ideal. Unsightly wires should be underground.

A second factor in Allentown's change was the impact of its leading citizen, Harry C. Trexler. As head of the city's new planning commission he saw to it that things got done. Wires were put underground. This was known at the time as "Allentown's subway." Gaudy street signs were banished, and a wide variety of other commercial street objects disappeared.

Another factor was the inspiration of Maud Reichenbach, the wife of Allentown mayor Al Reichenbach. On a pre-World-War I trip to Europe Mrs. Reichenbach had seen the streets of the cities decorated with flower filled bowls. This led her husband to get them for the city. Photographs taken in 1918 show them already in place. A photo of him taken circa 1917 shows a big broad-shouldered man in a wide brimmed Panama hat on his head. Known in some local circles as the "bulldozer of Allentown," it is possible he pushed the idea through. It is also possible, indeed more than likely, that he had Trexler's approval on this.

The city contacted the Union Metal Manufacturing Company of Canton, Ohio and, according to their lamp catalogue for 1924, ordered several hundred of the bowl lamps to decorate Hamilton Street. They replaced the old arc lights that had dangled over the street on wires. It is not known if the bowls were designed exclusively for Allentown but the shade of green that they were made in is still called by the company PPL green. Starting in the 1920s they were the one thing that many people knew about Allentown if they did not know anything else. They became known as the "hanging gardens of Allentown," a la the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Post cards in profusion from the 1930s to the 1960s showed them, usually with the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company's tower building in the background.

In 1973 with the Hamilton Mall, the hanging gardens were taken down, as they did not fit with the overhead canopies that were installed along Hamilton Street. Most were scrapped, although a few were purchased by West End homeowners who put them up by their homes. In 1998, the Hamilton Mall was dismantled. Mayor Bill Heydt contacted Union Metal Standards and ordered the flower bowl light standards back in place. Today they grace the streets once more. What is old can sometimes become new again.