Check out the                      that 69 news did about Waldheim Park History! 

 

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The morning of Tuesday, August 11, 2015 dawned gray and wet over the Lehigh Valley, hardly weather for the outdoor band concert that Waldheim Park, a religious retreat spawned on Allentown’s south side in 1904, had planned.

 

That evening’s event was to be a special one, the 100th anniversary concert by the Allentown Band, to be played in the park’s wooden tabernacle. And as one of the park’s officials later confessed (she was certainly not the only one), she had been praying that the weather would clear. Gradually, in fits and starts, it did. By 6:00 that evening, an hour before the concert’s scheduled start at 7:00, the rains had ceased, clouds had crumbled and the sun was slowly setting in a deep, azure blue sky.

 

A long line of cars stretched out to the park’s entrance. Guided by Waldheim’s volunteers, the attendees parked and walked up to the tabernacle. As they did they passed some of the vintage cottages, some decked out in bright colors that reflect Waldheim’s heritage as a summer camp meeting site. It was not long before every seat was taken, and lawn chairs blossomed along its edges.  

 

Then a crowd that included the young and the not so young was to spend the next several hours listening to music that ranged from opera arias by Puccini and Bizet to a spirited version of the hymn the Old Rugged Cross. When it was over, the audience filed out in the darkness, a string of red tail lights marking their passing. Others waited out the crowd at the refreshment stand with a dish of warm apple dumplings and vanilla ice cream. The end, some might say, of a perfect day.

 

Waldheim Park was a product of a national movement that blossomed in America in the 19th century. The Methodist Church had a tradition of camp meeting places where they could gather before they had established churches. And it persisted even after churches were built. In 1869 the Methodist Camp Meeting Association created one of the best known and most popular camp meetings sites at Ocean Grove, N.J., today a seaside community at the north Jersey shore where services are still held. It boasts one of the largest communities of lovingly restored Victorian homes in the nation.

 

In the Pennsylvania-German Lehigh Valley, this revival movement was manifested by the creation of the Evangelical Association. Out of this grew the United Evangelical Congregational Church. In Allentown in the early 20th century, the denomination had many churches, among them Bethany U.E. Church at 6th and Oak Streets.

 

It was there on September 12, 1904 that the idea of Waldheim was first born. Camp meeting had been held at Beulah Park in Rittersville, a trolley car ride between Allentown and Bethlehem.

 

But church elders had grown uncomfortable with it. Perhaps in part it was the closeness to Central Park, then the region’s amusement center. Along with rides it offered beer drinking and vaudeville acts. These were things church leaders felt offered temptations that were too worldly. They wanted a place, they said, “where the sale of intoxicating drinks, dancing and theatrical performances shall be forever forbidden.”

 

That September day, the search committee announced its results. A property near the village of Mountainville, part of the old Charles Detwieler farm, seemed ideal. It was owned by David S. Menges, who had recently developed the property that included a picnic ground and former iron ore pit that had been turned into a pond. Menges called it Manganese Park, and had hoped that since the Macungie line ran by it, folks would want to settle there on the building lots he was offering. But apparently most people did not want to live out in what was then considered an isolated part of the region.

 

Menges decided that his best option was to sell the property. The church committee approached him and offered $5,500 for the site. Menges counted with an offer to sell for $6,000. The church formed a joint stock company with shares of $10 each and the purchase was made.

 

What to name the new property became a question. The first choice was Woodlawn. But at the next meeting the pastor Rev. J.H. Heisler announced that there was already a Woodlawn Picnic Grove nearby, so he proposed the name of Waldheim, was seconded by E. J. Rapp and gladly accepted by the committee.

 

Opening day for Waldheim was August 2, 1905. That day the road was full of buggies carrying men in high starched collars and women in long skirts. Trolleys did a brisk business, charging 5 cents a ride from Allentown, 10 cents from Bethlehem. And Milton Flory made a particular splash by arriving in his sporty new automobile.

 

But worship was the object and U.E. Bishop W.F. Heil gave the dedication. “To the worship of God belongs the choice of Waldheim” he noted, “if the purpose, the purpose for which it is to be dedicated is to be realized. That He may always be accorded His place by the management and the people who worship here is, I trust the prayer of all.”

 

Over the next 10 years Waldheim saw a number of changes. Dynamite was used to do away with particularly large boulders. In 1907 the first tabernacle was built. It was 100 feet in diameter. It was apparently based on a design from the popular Mt. Gretna Resort in Lebanon Valley and was built at a cost of $3,000.

 

The tabernacle was to survive until 1994 when a blizzard load of snow caused its roof to collapse. A new one of wood in a similar design graces the same spot today. The first cabins came in 1908, and by 1910 streets and cabin lots were laid out. Some have year-round residents. A pool replaced the ore pit in 1957. Despite these changes 21st century Waldheim remains true to itself.      

 

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