Catasauqua's municipal park did not arrive as a finished civic gift. It started as a campaign, then opened on the eve of Independence Day in 1916 with courts, a band shell and a lake people had dug by hand.
The Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association traces that push to 1915, when William and Minnie Thomas began a campaign for a Catasauqua Park and Playground. A local historical account, Another day in Catasauqua, dates the opening to July 3, 1916: two basketball courts, four tennis courts, two volleyball courts and a band shell.
A Lake Measured in Hundreds of Feet
The same account describes a hand-dug lake, dammed below Bridge Street, measuring 600 feet by 100 feet. That is not a decorative pond tucked beside a path. It is a piece of ground large enough to change how the new playground sat next to the water.
The Deed Changed Hands, With One Exception
The people who organized the park did not keep it. The preservation association says the park and playground association deeded the property to the Catasauqua School District in 1931. In 1969, ownership transferred completely to the borough, except for Thomas Field. Almost everything moved. One named piece of ground did not.
Free Music at 100, and a Blues Jam That Left
The Morning Call reported in June 2016 that Catasauqua Municipal Park would mark its 100th anniversary with a weekend of free pop and rock music at the park's band shell at 501 American St. The admission policy was the uncomplicated kind: show up.
That summer the free Summer Concert Series offered music from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays through Sept. 2. The same article recorded a departure in the centennial year. For the previous 10 years, the park and band shell had been the site of the annual Lehigh River Blues Jam, usually held in mid-June. In 2016 the jam moved to April and left for the Days Inn Ballroom in Allentown.
A century after William and Minnie Thomas started asking for a playground, the documented life of that band shell is still a record of people gathering in public: courts, a shell, a hand-dug lake, and, at 100, a weekend of music that did not charge a ticket.
