Category:Cedar Creek Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Cedar Creek Park is a park on Cedar Creek in Allentown. It is one of the largest parks in the city. It was officially established on 4 November 1929 when the City of Allentown acquired 121 acres of land along Cedar Creek. It also is the location of the Allentown City Parks Department headquarters.

The parcel included part of the Griesemer Duck Farm, the land starting from the Duck Farm Hotel, at St Lucas Street and Reading Road. The parcel is bounded by twenty-first street to the east and Cedar Crest Boulevard in the west, although it originally ran west to Haines Mill in Cetronia. Ott Street actually runs though the park in a north-south direction and divides it into two parcels. Parkway Boulevard, an extension of West Linden Street is the northern boundary of the park; Hamilton Street is the southern boundary to Ott Street, and Honochick Drive is west of Ott Street. The grounds of Cedar Crest College form the southern boundary also to Cedar Crest Boulevard. It also contained part of the right-of-way of the Allentown and Reading Traction Company intercity trolley line.

The tract, also known as the A H Balliet Pastime Farm included a 3-story home, a large 2-story barn, a greenhouse and other sheds. The Allentown Art Museum occupied the stone building at Ott Street and Parkway Boulevard for about 20 years. In 1957, the Art Museum moved to 5th and Court Street into the former First Prespeterian Church Building, and the house was taken over as the Allentown Parks Department Office. The building was taken over by the Allentown Parks Department and turned into its headquarters in 1956.

Work on the Rose Garden, west of Ott Street started in the early 1930s. Because of the support and interest of Mayor Gross, it was renamed the Gross Memorial Garden after his death.

In 1932, the old Cedar Beach pool, in actuality a hollowed-earth pit with a sand floor that was filled with water from the creek, was purchased by the city. It was leased until the old bathhouse burned down. Then in 1952, the city re-engineered the site and built a modern concrete pool and bathhouse at the site.

Major recreation areas of the park in the eastern section include:

• Cedar Beach Park. The area east of Ott Street between Hamilton Street and south of Lake Muhlenburg and Cedar Beach Pool
• Cedar Beach Pool. A municipal swimming pool, first built in 1917 as a private endeavor. Today, it is a pubic swimming pool open during the summers
• Lake Muhlenburg. An artificial lake built by the Works Progress administration in 1938, and a large picnic area equipped with grills and tables.
• The Malcolm Gross Rose Garden. Built in 1929, just to the west of Ott Street.

Cedar Creek Park has many picnic areas along with a large grassy area for recreation Cedar Creek flows through the center of the park roughly in a west to east direction from Cedar Crest Boulevard to 24th street.