Category:Joseph S. Daddona Lake and Terrace, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Joseph S. Daddona Lake and Terrace, formerly known as Union Terrace Park is a park, located at 21st and Union streets in Allentown.

The park was created as the result of a gift of 11 acres of land along Cedar Creek by M. A. Reisensmith & Associates in 1932. Later that year, the Allentown Parks department contracted with several engineers to lay out plans for an amphitheater and lake.

The Amphitheater was proposed as a public works project. Funding for it, was obtained in 1937 through the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), which facilitated its construction. The lake, which was constructed in 1934/1935 was stocked with several types of fish. It was also opened for ice skating during the winter of 1935/1936.

The Amphitheater consists of a large double stairwell on the St. Elmo street side of the park. It leads to a stepped terrance down the side of a grassy hill facing an elevated stage. There are also smaller stone stairways along both the Walnut and Union street sides of the terrace. The amphitheater was designed for outdoor concerts and is large enough to seat 6,000 people. Shortly after its completion, the city built benches on the terraces for about 2,000 people, but over the years, the wooden seats deteriorated and since have been removed.

On the stage of the Amphitheater are two large stone pillars on each side of the stage. These are the remains of the former west entrance gate to Allentown on Liberty Street, near 24th Street. The pillars were originally placed there before World War I, at the dawn of the age of the automobile. In 1937, they were dismantled and moved to Union Terrance and placed on each side of the Amphitheater Stage.

The stage is surrounded by well-trimmed shrubs and a backdrop of trees. Cedar Creek flows in front of the stage. Behind it is Union Terrace Lake, first dug out in 1935. The lake was originally planned as a children's fishing lake, and it was stocked with perch, sunfish and catfish. Ice skating on the lake began in 1936. There are also several large grassy fields, baseball diamonds and basketball courts in the park.

Construction of the Amphitheater ended in 1938. It was actually left unfinished by the WPA. A bandshell for the stage was proposed in 1940 along with equipment storage and changing rooms, a sound system, and public facilities. However these were never built due to a lack of funding. The Amphitheater also had city constructed bleachers for about 2,000 people, however over the years, the wooden bleachers deteriorated and they were removed, leaving people to sit on the grass terraces.

Over the years, the Amphitheater has been sparsely used. Its most recent major use was for Allentown Shakespeare in the Park, which performed there annually between 2006 and 2017. Plays presented were "Romeo and Juliet" (2006), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2007), "As You Like It" (2009), "Much Ado About Nothing" (2010), "Macbeth" (2012), "Twelfth Night" (2013),"Othello" (2014), "The Comedy of Errors" (2015), "Hamlet" (2016) and "Richard III" in 2017.

Because it was left unfinished, the venue mostly is a visual attraction. It suffers from poor acoustics, no amplification system, and also a railroad spur, which was used for many years that tended to disrupt concerts with noise. The amphitheater, has the basic qualifications as an outdoor theater, such as for graduations. However, it needs improvement for general public use.

In 2002, the park was renamed Joseph S. Daddona Lake and Terrace, honoring the former Mayor of Allentown who lived overlooking the park on Walnut Street.