Central Park (Allentown, Pennsylvania) Central Park (Allentown, Pennsylvania) Central Park is a former amusement park in the Rittersville section of Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was closed in 1951. Central Park's origins date to 1868 when J. Frank Reichart laid out a race course north of the Allentown-Bethlehem turnpike (Hanover Avenue) which was opened for trotting and pacing from May to August. In 1872 the Rittersville Park Association was organized. The park was enlarged to 16 acres and was known as Manhattan Park. When the Allentown & Bethlehem Rapid Traction Company took ownership of the area from Thomas Ritter it was called The Greater Central Park.
Central Park Hospital who built the complex and provided nursing staff). Following the Civil War the buildings and site became a sculpture museum and restaurant, called variously the Mount St. Vincent Hotel, Stetson's Hotel, and the McGown's Pass Tavern. Today the site is used by the Central Park Conservancy as a composting area. It should not be confused with Park Hospital, which was the renamed Red Cross Hospital also located on Central Park in New York City from 1914–1922 and which the current New York University Hospital is partly descended from. Central Park Hospital The Central Park Hospital (officially the U.S. General Hospital,