Basic Overview

Erected: 1949
Renovations/Additions: 1971
Sq. Footage: 28,836

Humble Beginnings

Lehigh Parkway Elementary School, located in the southwest part of the city, was built in 1948. The school was built as part of a post-war housing development and named after the parkway that borders the entire development. The original section of the building contained four classrooms, a teacher's room, and health room. The building was built to replace the Catalina Avenue School, a school that was set up in a home on Catalina Avenue. An addition was built in 1955, which included eight more classrooms, a kitchen, and an all-purpose room, health room, and teacher's room.

National Recognition

The school received national publicity because it was being built as a result of a new neighborhood of twin homes being developed in southwest Allentown. Thus the “neighborhood school concept” of Allentown School District was born. In 1955, as a result of the post-war population boom, eight more classrooms, a kitchen, an all-purpose room, health room and teacher’s room were added.

Current Status

Currently there are eleven classrooms, a library and an all-purpose room. In 2007, a portable building was added to house two additional classrooms. The colorful tiles embedded into the wall outside of the school’s office were made at the Moravian Tile Factory near Doylestown and depict childhood poems and fairy tales.