Ellingsen Bandstand
at Bingham Park - Hawley, Pennsylvania
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Christopher Ellingsen
1882-1949
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Michele Gabriele
Ellingsen Bandstand
Dedicating an Architectural Jewel of Hawley
Written by Valerie Kellogg
On a September evening in 1932, heralded by the stirring sound of brass and percussion booming through a Pennsylvania park, an iconic community space was born – the Hawley Bandstand.
The open air venue in Bingham Park has become the life beat of this riverside borough – a place where residents congregate, not only for concerts, but to rally around local causes, meet Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, or to gather for birthday parties, family reunions and weddings.
Soon, residents of this community of 1,300 will know the name of the man who created the bandstand, considered today to be one of Hawley’s architectural jewels: Christopher Ellingsen.
It is likely that Ellingsen, who designed not only the bandstand but the entire park, watched the Ringgold Band perform that September evening with wife, Alvilda. It must have been a proud hometown moment for Ellingsen, one the then-middle-aged man probably never envisioned. The Norway-born engineer, whose career spanned survey work on the Panama Canal, collaboration on the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada, to a rolling lift bridge in the Chinese industrial and commercial center of Guangzhou (then known as Canton)- also likely did not know that he would be leaving behind an architectural legacy.
Born in 1882 in Kvitnes, Norway, more than 68 degrees north of the Arctic Circle, Ellingsen was likely expected to join his prominent family’s shipping and merchant business, no doubt encouraged by his father, Carl, a five-time and founding member of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, and whose family had noble ties. Instead Ellingsen attended Germany’s Heidelberg University, where he studied civil engineering and architecture and ended up forging a unique path that took him around the world.
Christopher Ellingsen- circa 1902
Photo Courtesy of Diana Billard
Early construction of the Thousand Island Bridge.
Speaking seven languages, Ellingsen emigrated to America in 1904, setting up a home in New York City. He worked for several firms, including Robinson and Steinman Engineers, considered to be the foremost designers of bridges in the country at that time. But when Alvilda fell ill, her doctor recommended relocating to the country for fresh air.
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Ellingsen moved Alvilda and their young children to Hawley, located on the Lackawaxen River in northeast Pennsylvania not far from the New York State border. They settled on 200 hilltop acres, where the Ellingsens started a farm using Norwegian practices Christopher brought from his homeland. There he and Alvilda raised their six children. Ellingsen continued to work for his engineering firm, commuting about 100 miles between New York City and Hawley by train. When the Great Depression started, the farm helped Ellingsen support his family.
Ellingsen and Alvilda in their NewYork apartment with Finn and Gunhilda. Four more children would follow.
Public Domain Photo
The creation of Bingham Park in Hawley, Pennsylvania, during the Great Depression, became a municipal task that suited Ellingsen’s skills. As a marker next to the Hawley Bandstand tells us today, the park is located on land once flooded to become a basin for boats on the Delaware and Hudson Canal that transported coal to a switching station, where the coal was then sent by rail to New York City.
With a vision mapped in paper schemes and signed with his initials, Ellingsen oversaw the construction of the bandstand. But it was not the only structure he designed. Others included a grandstand, bath houses and light poles that integrated cobblestones into their designs. Some of these original structures, as well as the original design for the triangle-shaped park, remain.
Bandstands originated in Europe, gaining popularity in the United States after the Civil War. Ellingsen’s octagonal version in Hawley, made of wood, is about 40 feet wide and contains a domed roof, balustrades, pillars and wide steps.
Come July 29, 2023, the bandstand will be renamed Ellingsen Bandstand in tribute to the engineer’s legacy in Hawley.
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Author: Valerie Kellogg is a New York-based journalist.
Photo Courtesy of Ellingsen Descendants
More Photos
Coming Soon
More Photos
Coming Soon
The information below was collected through first-hand account interviews with grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Christopher and Alvilda Ellingsen.
Life on the Ellingsen Farm
Wife Alvilda Ellingsen was known as a strong, self-sufficient woman as she managed the children and farm while Christopher worked in New York.
There was a hand pump for water, full vegetable and flower gardens, chicken coops, a barn with animals and several storage structures. In the winter time, the couple's children would ski down Spruce Street (aka Sport Hill) to deliver eggs to the store at the base of the hill (later to become "Sheridan's") next to Anke's Sweater Mill. The children all had farm chores.
L to R: Alvilda, baby grandson Danny, grown daughter Gunhilda (Cari), grandson Billy, granddaughter Marilyn, son Ralph, baby granddaughter Alice, at the farm.
Photo Courtesy of Marilyn Cerrato
Soon Christopher added a building that would serve as his office while home, with quarters for farm workers. He also built a full size "play house cabin" for the children. In the hot summers, everyone would take turns on the hanging metal porch swing on the expansive front porch.
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Alvilda loved her flower gardens. Christopher would help his wife take care of her flowers by firing a single round from his shot gun over the flowers in the evening. The scent of the gunpowder would fall down on the flowers and that would keep the deer away.
Alvilda in her flower garden.
Photo Courtesy of Marilyn Cerrato
