HISTORIC BETHLEHEM MUSEUMS AND SITES Confidential © BETHLEHEM BY NIGHT BUS TOUR - Private Bus Groups 2015 Kemerer Museum Departure
Driving directions will appear in bold type. Additional information is attached as appendices at the end of the script for the Southside tour start . Any words that are in bold within the text must be included in your tour. ______Introduction-while the bus is parked in front of the Kemerer Museum. Try to make sure that you have a seat in the front of the bus so that you do not have to stand to give the tour.
On behalf of Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, I would like to welcome you to our “Bethlehem by Night” Tour. Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites manages 20 historic museums and sites in Bethlehem and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
My name is______.
During our ride, we will cover more than 270 years of Bethlehem’s history. We will tour the north side of Bethlehem where a Protestant religious group from Central Europe called the Moravians settled in 1741 and built a community that was one of the most unusual and successful religious settlements in colonial America. Then we will cross the Lehigh River into South Bethlehem and learn about Bethlehem’s 19th century history, travel along the grounds of the former Bethlehem Steel plant, ascend South Mountain, skirt Lehigh University campus and the return to the 18th century once more.
At this season of the year, we celebrate Bethlehem’s continued uniqueness as “Christmas City, USA.” Today people like you come from far and wide to enjoy the traditions that have made Bethlehem a special place to be at Christmas such as single candles shining in windows, simple white lights adorning community Christmas trees, the multi-pointed Moravian star, the Moravian putz, and inspirational music. Now let’s start our trip back in time.
South on New St. Turn right onto Church St. Stay to the left at stop sign and go around Moravian College buildings staying to the left. Turn left where Main Street continues to Lehigh Street.
Imagine a cold and snowy Christmas Eve in 1741. The fourteen original Moravian founders had already been joined by other Moravians and were in the process of building their second building, a log structure called the Gemeinhaus. Their patron, Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, who was visiting America, had also joined them. On that first Christmas Eve, led by the Count, they walked to the First House, a combination log stable and dwelling which stood where Hotel Bethlehem stands today. Here the Moravians founders led by Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, after an especially moving service, sang a Moravian hymn that included the words, “not Jerusalem, lowly Bethlehem” and thus, Bethlehem was christened.
Who are the Moravians? (Insert when time permits) Our story starts in eastern Europe, where the early Moravians were followers of John Hus, a Roman Catholic priest who believed that the Bible and preaching should be in the language of the people and encouraged congregational singing not in Latin but in the vernacular language. He also strove to reform the worldliness and corruption of the church. For his beliefs, he was burned at the stake in 1415 by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Constance. In 1457, his followers united, called themselves Unitas Fratrum or Unity of the Brethren.
The Brethren, later called the Moravians because a number of them came from the geographic area of Moravia (currently in the Czech Republic), consider themselves one of the oldest Protestant denominations, predating Martin Luther and the formation of the Lutheran Church by about 50 years.
By worshiping in secret during the many wars in Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, the Moravians were able to survive. In 1722, leaders of the Unitas Fratrum were introduced to a young nobleman from Saxony (in present day Germany), Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who allowed the members of the Unitas Fratrum to come out of hiding and live on his estate. Zinzendorf, a Lutheran Pietist, became their benefactor and religious leader. The Moravian community founded on the Count’s estate was known as Herrnhut or Lord’s Watch.
In the mid 1730s, Moravians traveled to the North American continent (by ship – the Moravians owned their own ships) with the purpose of preaching the gospel to the American Indians and un-churched Europeans, sending missionaries to Savannah, Georgia after having received a grant of land in that area.1 This mission was unsuccessful; some missionaries died and others returned to Europe. The remaining Moravians, many of whom were against bearing arms, left Georgia to avoid the conflict with the Spaniards in Florida.
At the same time as the mission to Georgia, a few other Moravians were working with the Schwenkfelders in southeast Pennsylvania. Zinzendorf and his brethren were looking for a center for the Moravian Church in America. “Anticipating preaching in the settlements, establishing schools for the hosts of neglected children and missions among the Indians, the plans were to be carried out from a central settlement.”2
The Moravians from Georgia had worked out an agreement with the Anglican minister George Whitefield to live on his land in Nazareth, Pennsylvania and work with the American Indians nearby until they could establish their own settlement. After a short period of time, the Moravians and George Whitefield had a falling out over theological precepts and Whitefield asked them to leave. They purchased 500 acres at the confluence of the Monocacy Creek and Lehigh River and eventually acquired over 4,000 acres on both sides of the Lehigh River.
The Moravians did not leave Europe due to religious persecution. They came to the new world as missionaries, to spread Christianity to the American Indians and un-churched European settlers. The colonial Moravians had strong religious convictions and created communities that were highly sophisticated, cultured, musical, industrious, and well educated. Many visitors came to Bethlehem including well known colonial leaders such as John Adams and George Washington who were astonished by what they found.
Left onto New Street then right around City Center to Church Street. Left onto Church Street. Move slowly down Church Street while passing Moravian buildings.
We are now below Bethlehem’s City Center Complex. Over 250 years ago on this hillside stood a small Moravian village for Christianized American Indians called Friedenshuetten, or “Huts of Peace.” It is interesting to think that the streets of early Bethlehem were alive with many American Indians who interacted with Moravians in the early years of Bethlehem. The Moravians were the most successful Protestant missionary group to the American Indians.
Before I can finish my story about the early days of Bethlehem, we need to return to the 21st century for a few minutes. We are now driving around Bethlehem’s City Center Complex. Built in the 1960s, the complex includes City Hall, Town Hall, and the Bethlehem Area Public Library.
The official city Christmas tree is located in the center of this complex along with a smaller tree called the Mayor’s Tree, which is decorated each year by the children of Bethlehem. A nearly life-sized nativity scene was imported from Italy and placed here in 1991 to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of Bethlehem.
The Moravian founders actually introduced the concept of the Bibilical Christmas story called a putz to their congregation in the very early years. (The word comes from the German “putzen” meaning to decorate”) In 1937, the Moravians opened an elaborate putz to the community and it has become a favorite part of Bethlehem’s Christmas tradition ever since. *Appendix 1.
On your left next to the library is the Japanese tea house and serenity garden, both gifts from the residents of Tondabayashi (ton-day-bye-ah-shee), Bethlehem’s sister city in Japan. This city was chosen because it is one of the world’s largest producers of Christmas ornaments.
We now continue traveling west on Church Street and entering our newly designated Historic Moravian Bethlehem National Historic Landmark District, one of only 8 such districts in PA and 200 in the entire country. These sturdy limestone buildings are the finest examples of original colonial Germanic architecture in America. These buildings were constructed because of the unique social system that the Moravians developed called the choir system. The early Moravians lived in groups divided by age, gender, and marital status rather than living in traditional families. The first choir house on the right is the 1744 – 1772 Single Sisters’ House. Here the women and older girls lived, worshiped, and worked. Part of this structure will be opening in 2014 as a museum to tell the very unique role of women in Moravian Bethlehem.
Attached to the Single Sisters’ House is the 1746 Bell House originally used by the married couples and later housed the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies, the first girls’ boarding school in the American colonies. The Moravians believed in a complete education for young women as well as young men and they taught girls and boys the same curriculum: mathematics, geography, sciences, and foreign languages at a time when most young girls were learning only basic reading skills and domestic arts. Today the Bell House is private apartments and is not open to the public.
The 1751 Old Chapel joins the Bell House with the Gemeinhaus. This building was the second place of worship in Bethlehem and is sometimes called the “Indian Chapel” because so many Native Americans were baptized here.
On the left stands the 1768 Widow’s House built for the Widows Choir and later housed the widows of Moravian ministers and missionaries. Today it also contains private apartments and is not open to the public.
The 1741 Gemeinhaus, or Community House, housed all of Bethlehem’s residents at first and contained the Saal-first place of worship in Bethlehem. This log building, now covered with clapboards, is probably the largest 18th century log house still in continuous use today. It is also the location of the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, displaying objects used in the daily lives of the early settlers, and it is a National Historic Landmark. This is the site of the very first Christmas Tree in America in 1747. Please stop in for a tour of one of our Historic Bethlehem sites!
At the end of Church Street, on the left, stands the 1748 Single Brethren’s House. This limestone structure housed the men and older boys of the community and contained dormitories, workshops, a small chapel, the town bakery, and a bell foundry. During the American Revolution, this sturdy building was used as a hospital for the Continental army. Hundreds of soldiers, as well as some of the Moravians who tended them, died here. Today the building houses the Moravian College Music Department.
Turn right at stop sign onto Main Street. Proceed slowly up Main Street to Broad Street.
The large church on your right is Central Moravian Church. Its towering steeple has been a landmark in Bethlehem since its construction from 1803-1806, their third place of worship. Built in the Federal architectural style, Central Moravian Church has no internal supports and was probably the largest church in Pennsylvania without interior columns when it was completed-able to seat 1,500 people when Bethlehem’s population was only around 500 people!
Music has always played an important role in Moravian history. The Moravian trombone choir, organized in 1754, often played from the rooftop of the Single Brethren’s House and later the belfry of Central Moravian Church. The Trombone Choir would announce the arrival of important visitors, such as George Washington in 1782, as well as other events important to the congregation such as births and deaths. Today the trombone choir is the oldest brass musical group in continuous service in America and still plays from the belfry to mark special church and community events. Central Moravian Church is designated a National Music Landmark. In 1900, the Bethlehem Bach Choir performed the first complete American performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor here.
The National Historic Landmark District continues down into the Colonial Industrial Quarter. On your left, the standing wall belongs to the 1749 Pottery. Here all kinds of redware products like bowls, mugs, plates, tiles for tile stoves, and clay pipes were formed and fired.
The reconstructed building next to that is the 1750/1761 Smithy which housed the blacksmith and other craftsmen who worked in iron, tin, and pewter to make tools, household goods, nails, and locks.
On your right, is the Moravian Book Shop, the oldest bookstore in continuous operation in the United States. Founded in 1745, the book shop is still owned by the Moravian Church and proceeds from sales are still used to support Moravian missionaries and ministers.
Notice the Historic Hotel Bethlehem on your left. As I mentioned, this was the location of Bethlehem’s first house where our city was Christened that first Christmas Eve of 1741. During the mid-1700s, this was also the location of large barns and stables. After the General Economy ended in 1762, the choir system also broke down and Main Street expanded northward to accommodate new houses needed for the Moravians to live as traditional families instead of in their choir groups.
On your left, at the intersection of Market and Main Streets, stands another of our Historic Bethlehem sites, our 1810 Goundie House. This Federal-style residence, the first brick home in Bethlehem, was built for John Sebastian and Cornelia Elisabeth Goundie and their family. Goundie was the town brewer who operated the community’s brewery and later a brewery of his own. He was also a civic and business leader in the 1800s, a time of great change. The Goundie House adjoins our Historic Bethlehem Visitor center and museum store which dates from 1835 when it was a hardware and grocery store run by Goundie’s son and later his son-in-law. Please stop in to shop a wonderful selection of gifts and treasures. Each dollar spent here helps support the preservation of our historic buildings and educational efforts.
In the early days of Bethlehem, Market Street marked the northernmost street in the community. Everything built to the north of it was considered “outside” of Bethlehem! One of the important buildings constructed “outside” of Bethlehem during the early days was the 1758 Sun Inn, on your right. This colonial Germanic style limestone structure with its red tile roof opened in 1761 and quickly became famous for its fine food and spirits, and yes, George Washington really did sleep here in 1782! The Sun Inn was saved from demolition and was restored in the 1980s by the Sun Inn Preservation Association.
Turn left at light onto Broad Street. (go slowly across bridge)
As we cross over the Broad Street Bridge, we have the perfect vantage point to see the beautiful lighted Christmas trees and Advent Candles on the Hill-to-Hill Bridge on your left. Also, the Star of Bethlehem is shining in the distance. It is the largest known display of its kind in the world, visible for 20 miles to the north, limited by hills and the earth’s curve in its visibility to the south. You’ll find out more about the star in a little while.
Christmas is an important time in Bethlehem and was important for the early Moravians, also. Many of the early Moravian traditions form the basis of Christmas in Bethlehem today. This season of celebration was first formalized in 1937 through the efforts of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. Vernon Melhado, President of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce at that time, stated: “Why not make Bethlehem, named at Christmas, the Christmas City for the entire country? Bethlehem did not create Christmas, but Christmas created Bethlehem.” It was then that Bethlehem became known as “Christmas City USA.” I’ll explain more of the Moravian traditions as we drive along.
Now I want to tell you more about the clothing that I am wearing. I am dressed in the style of the early Moravian founders. The women and girls wore simple skirts with white aprons and white scarves at the neck. The color of the ribbon with which they laced their bodices and tied their caps denoted the choir to which they belonged. Remember we looked at the choir houses on Church Street earlier. The choirs, or living groups, consisted of children in the nursery, little girls, little boys, older girls, older boys, single women, single men, married women, married men, widows and widowers. The choir system was a way of organizing the religious and everyday life of the early Bethlehem community.
Young girls wore red ribbons, single women wore pink ribbons, married women wore blue ribbons, and widows wore white ribbons. The style of the cap was distinctive to Moravian women too. It is called a schneppelhaube (schnepp-ell-how-bah). Moravian men dressed like the rest of their colonial counterparts wearing knee britches, a shirt, a waistcoat, and a flat-brimmed black felt hat. Both genders wore cloaks to protect them from cold and rain.
Turn right onto Third Avenue, then right onto Union Blvd., then right onto Conestoga Street.
As we come down the hill, we will be going along the Monocacy and under the Broad Street Bridge. You can see how steep the hills are on either side of the creek. It was not until the late 1800s when the bridge was built that development really took place in West Bethlehem.
Industry was important to the early Moravians because they wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible in order to support their vast missionary operation. By 1745, only four years after the founding of Bethlehem, the Moravians had established more than 35 different crafts, trades, and industries in their town! During the first twenty years of the town, the economic system was called the General Economy. Under it, everyone worked for the good of the community, receiving food, clothing, shelter, education and health care instead of wages. In 1762, this system changed to lease system and then private enterprise.
The area to the left is the Colonial Industrial Quarter, the most extensive site of pre-industrial revolution technology in colonial America and can be considered America’s earliest industrial park. The heavy, or dirtier, industries like the tannery, tawery, grist mill, oil mill, and butchery were located here on the flood plain of the Monocacy Creek. The creek itself was important because it provided power for the many mills that the Moravians built.
Three important buildings have been restored in this area. The 1761 Tannery processed animal hides into leather for boots, shoes, saddles, and other items. The 1762 Waterworks housed the first pumped municipal water system in the American colonies and is a National Historic Landmark. The 1869 Luckenbach Mill is the third grist mill to be built on the same site. The Moravians ground grain into flour here. Walking tours of this significant area are now available. It is hard to believe that just 50 years ago, this area was a huge automobile junkyard!
Look up the hill to your left to get a good view of Central Moravian Church and its beautiful belfry.
As you look straight ahead, you can get another view of the Star on South Mountain shining down on our city.
At the stop sign continue straight. Stay to the left and at the stop sign, turn left onto Lehigh Street. Stay in the right lane and go over the Fahy Bridge.
As we cross this bridge you will notice the lights changing from white to multi-color. Now we are traveling into South Bethlehem. Much of this land started out as Moravian farmland but was sold off by the Moravian Church beginning in 1845. South Bethlehem became a separate community and was the location of the Industrial Revolution in the area and was founded on zinc, iron, steel, and the railroad. Bethlehem, West Bethlehem and South Bethlehem united into one city in 1917.
Originally, visitors coming to Bethlehem from the south came around South Mountain and followed Indian trails along the Lehigh River until they came to one of four fords which allowed them to cross over by riding horseback, wading, or using a rope ferry. In 1794, the first bridge was constructed on the site of the current bridge, the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, which was built in 1924. It was a toll Bridge built to make mail delivery easier since the US Postal Service had been organized a few years earlier in Philadelphia. A bridge has stood on this site ever since. *Appendix 3.
To the left of the bridge, less than a hundred yards away, stood the first large industry to locate in south Bethlehem, the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, built in 1853. Zinc ore, a safer substitute for white lead used in paint, had been discovered in Upper Saucon in the early 1800s. The ore was hauled over South Mountain from the mines and processed at the zinc works. *Appendix 9. As you look down the river, you can see the railroads and the remains of the Bethlehem Steel plant, the 2nd largest steel producer in the US.
As we near the end of the bridge, you can see the Steelworker’s Memorial on your right and Riverport- a 172 condo and retail complex that has made use of an old Steel building, the Johnson Machinery building.
At the end of the bridge, turn right. Stay in the center lane and go straight at the light. At the next light, turn left onto Wyandotte Street.
Coming up on your right is the Banana Factory, home of ArtsQuest, the organization which runs Musikfest and Christkindlmarkt. The building was formerly a warehouse for bananas but has been renovated as offices, artist studios, classrooms, art galleries and a gift shop.
To your right, you will see the Perkins Restaurant which stands on the site of the old Crown Inn, a two- story log structure that was built by the Moravians in 1745 as Bethlehem’s first hotel. Some history about this inn was that Benjamin Franklin stayed there when he came to this area to oversee the building of forts during the French and Indian War in the 1750s and, during the Revolutionary War, the Crown Inn housed sick and wounded soldiers.
On your left is the Comfort Suites which presents a wonderful display of ethnic Christmas trees each holiday season.
On the right, there are two mansions built by industrial leaders of South Bethlehem. The first belonged to E.P. Wilbur, an entrepreneur of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, now part of the Masonic Temple. And, the Sayre Mansion built by Robert H. Sayre, Superintendent and engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Sayre married four times and had twelve children. One of his sons, Francis, married United States President Woodrow Wilson’s daughter, Jessie. Francis later served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Secretary of State. The mansion today is a bed and breakfast called the Sayre Mansion Inn.
As we turn left here you can see, on your left, the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, an Episcopal church built in 1864. Many of South Bethlehem’s entrepreneurs worshiped here. For the marriage of Sayre’s daughter, Ruth, a red carpet was laid diagonally between the Church of the Nativity and the Sayre mansion so that the bridal party could walk across the street in style!
Starting in the mid-1850s, thousands of immigrants and residents of outlying rural communities came to work primarily in the plants and shops that supported the zinc, iron, and railroad industries, and eventually the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
The Irish and Germans were the primary groups here in South Bethlehem during the 1860s and 1870s. These groups would soon be followed by immigrants from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Russia, Greece, Lithuania, Croatia, Mexico, and after World War II, Puerto Rico, and various other countries.*Appendix 4. Each ethnic group established its own nationality-affiliated church and social organizations and each group had their own Christmas customs as well. The South Bethlehem Historical Society’s ethnic Christmas tree display at the Comfort Suites, that I mentioned, earlier, honors the customs of these diverse men and women.
As we have been driving, you may have noticed blue signs with numbers: Historic Bethlehem Heritage Trail. This is a 6-link, 80 stop walking tour using your cell phones or a digital recorder you can pick up at our Visitor Center.
Continue on Wyandotte Street (Route 378 North)
As we travel up Wyandotte Street you will see on our left the Borough of Fountain Hill. The Moravians originally farmed this land for about 100 years (1750s to 1850s). Appendices 5 and 6. During the mid-to- late 1800s, however, Fountain Hill became best known as THE place to live for the entrepreneurs of South Bethlehem’s zinc, iron, and railroad industries.
In 1846, Francis Oppelt, a German physician, purchased six acres from the Moravian Church and built the Hydropathic Institute, a spa for practicing the treatment of diseases with water, using chemically- pure spring water. For 25 years, this “cure” attracted hundreds of upper class people seeking health and wellness. After the Civil War, the social crowd drifted toward more glittering spas such as Saratoga Springs. In 1871, Oppelt’s business went bankrupt.
Fountain Hill also became home to St. Luke’s Hospital. The hospital was chartered in 1872 as an Episcopalian-affiliated hospital, responding to the need to care for workers injured at the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1875, with a $250,000 bequest from Asa Packer, the old Hydropathic Institute was purchased and incorporated into the hospital. In 1884, the training school for nurses was opened. St. Luke’s Nursing School remains the nation’s oldest hospital based, diploma school in continuous operation.
Fountain Hill is also the birthplace of an award winning American poet: Stephen Vincent Benet, born in 1898 and died in New York in 1943, wrote the Civil War epic poem “John Brown’s Body” and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
We are now climbing South Mountain and will be traveling along its crest. This mountain rises 890 feet above sea level. The rocks that make up the core of South Mountain are more than 1 billion years old and are among the oldest in the state. The younger rocks surrounding South Mountain’s ancient core include limestone and other carbonate rocks. Much of the limestone was cut and used by the Moravians for construction of their buildings.
Just before the light at the top of the hill, take a right “dog-leg” and then turn left onto Mountain Drive.
As we travel on this road, we will be near the actual location of the Star of Bethlehem which we saw earlier. The motto that “Behind every great man is a great woman,” certainly applies to Bethlehem’s famous star. It was the wife of PPL illuminating engineer, Mrs. Paul Hildebrand, who suggested to her husband that a star should be placed on the top of South Mountain!
Donations were solicited from local merchants and residents while Hildebrand worked with a structural engineer at Bethlehem Steel to design a star to put in the place his wife suggested. The first star was In 1937, Mrs. Eugene Grace, wife of the President of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, presented the star to the city to symbolize Bethlehem’s designation as “The Christmas City.”
The first star, six strips of 50-watt sign lamps mounted on wooden boards, was placed on South Mountain in 1937. It was 60 by 51 feet and constructed on wooden poles. December 15, 1939 saw a sturdier and wider star lit. It was 81 by 53 feet and constructed with a Bethlehem Steel frame. During WWII, Bethlehem Christmas decorations stayed dark and the Bethlehem Steel Plant was a target for enemy planes. In 1967, the old steel frame was installed in a concrete base and measures 91 by 53. It also was protected by plexi-glass. By the mid 90’s the star was lit every day of the year. In 2010 the star went “green” receiving LED lighting. This lighting enabled the star to be seen from greater distances. Indeed, the star represents more than just the Christmas season. Its symbol has been incorporated into the official city seal. Each of the five points represents a major facet of the city’s character Music, Education, Religion, Recreation, and Industry (MERRI).
Now imagine this area as a wilderness in the days of the Moravian founders! When the Moravians arrived here, there were no Native Americans living in the immediate area. This situation was a result of the Walking Purchase of 1737. Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, was a model of political democracy and religious tolerance. But, by the 1730s, William Penn had died and Penn’s children struggled to pay off their father’s debts. The Penn family’s attention turned to developing land at the Forks of the Delaware and beyond. In order to open the Lehigh Valley for development, a treaty would have to be negotiated with the Lenni Lenape Indians (Delaware Indians). They agreed to an established method of land measurement that had been used by William Penn, himself-land covered through a leisurely day-and-one-half walk would be the agreed upon purchase. Such purchases usually amounted to less than 30 miles. William’s sons, John and Thomas, however, were not as trustworthy. They mapped out a route that would yield the most territory and hired three walkers who trained for the enterprise. Where one stopped, another began and all three ran, not Walked! When they were done, the runners had covered a distance of 55 miles, giving the Penns claim to a territory of 1,200 square miles. This territory included the Indians’ best farm lands, hunting grounds, and many villages. The Delawares resented this Walking Purchase as one of history’s greatest scams.
At fork, stay left on Mountain Drive and begin to descend the mountain.
As we descend the mountain, you will see on your left some of the most beautiful vistas of the valley below us and Christmas City aglow with lights. So, please enjoy these views as we descend South Mountain. Also, try to imagine the valley below as an untouched wilderness more than 260 years ago when Bethlehem was founded!
As we continue down the mountain, you will see entryways into Lehigh University, a combination of beautiful ivy-covered stone and Gothic buildings and modern structures. Most classrooms, residence halls, dining facilities, two major libraries and the fitness center are located on its original campus. South Mountain’s quartzite, a hard sandstone , was used for many of the buildings on the Lehigh University campus. Asa Packer, the railroad magnate and entrepreneur who founded Lehigh in 1865, wished to devote a portion of his wealth to the founding of an educational institution for the intellectual and moral improvement of young men of the region to prepare them to be Engineers and Managers. Today Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university. Students come from nearly all 50 states and from many foreign countries. In 1971, the university opened its undergraduate program to women.
Turn Left onto Hayes Street
As we come down into South Bethlehem once again I want to point out the multi-colored lights which represent the diversity prevalent in South Bethlehem’s history. On the north side, the white lights represent the single candle illuminations of the early Moravian settlers.
As we travel down Hayes Street, we are heading back to the site of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Complex. At one time, the Bethlehem Plant of Bethlehem Steel Corporation covered 1,800 acres, stretching for over 4 miles.
Having begun as the Saucona Iron Company *Appendix 1 in 1857, it became the Bethlehem Iron Company in 1861. In 1882, the US government needed to rebuild our Navy and decided to do it with steel. Bethlehem Iron Company then became a producer of heavy armor plate and large guns and became Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1904. Charles Schwab assumed the presidency.
During WWI, Bethlehem Steel was dubbed the “arsenal of democracy” producing 60% of the guns and 45% of the artillery shells ordered by the US government. During WWII, Eugene Grace, Chairman of the Board, promised that the company could build one ship a day for the war effort and the company even surpassed that. During the height of World War II, over 30,000 people worked here around the clock with three shifts a day. Bethlehem Steel was highly profitable during these war years. In addition, it was the manufacturer of structural steel; it was said that 80% of New York’s skyscrapers in the 1940s contained steel produced by Bethlehem Steel. It provided steel for the country’s largest bridges, such as the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey and New York and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Bethlehem Steel grew to be the 2nd largest steel producer in the US, the largest shipbuilder in the world and had numerous plants, facilities, and subsidiaries in various locations around the country and interests around the world. In addition to steel plants, the company had shipyards, ore mines, ships to transport raw materials, railroads, fleets of trucks, and private airplanes for company business travel. This Bethlehem plant was the largest fully integrated structural steel mill taking raw materials and turning them into finished products.
Sadly, the ghostly silhouette of the blast furnaces now represents the end of an era. On November 18, 1995, 140 years of metal production ceased in Bethlehem. A decline in the U.S. steel industry and internal problems led to the company’s 2001 bankruptcy. A consensus ensued to use the heart of the plant for cultural, recreational, educational, entertainment and retail development. Artsquest Center at SteelStacks, PBS 39 and the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem are all part of the renaissance of this area. Stop by to take our Rise and Fall of Bethlehem Steel Tour or our Art and Architecture Tour of this site.
Turn right onto Daly Avenue. Turn left at the traffic light onto the Minsi Trail Bridge. As we approach the Minsi Trail Bridge, one of Bethlehem’s three bridges over the Lehigh River, you can see a wonderful view of the Lehigh River, the railroads and the canal. The Minsi Trail is believed to be one of the oldest American Indian tails in North America.
The Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem was constructed in the former ore yard of Bethlehem Steel in the architectural style of an industrial building. The huge black superstructure called an ore bridge was used to move raw materials from the ore yard to the blast furnaces.
The Lehigh Canal, opened in 1829, flows under the bridge at the north end to unite the coalfields of northeastern Pennsylvania with the Delaware Canal and then on to Philadelphia. The canal transported agricultural products, manufactured items and passengers. The Lehigh Canal changed Moravian Bethlehem forever, transforming the religious community into a secular town. The canal cut through the Moravians’ meadow lands, disrupting orchards, walking paths, and the general topography of the land. Transported goods competed with more expensive handcrafts produced by the Moravians. The canal also changed the course of the Monocacy Creek, disrupting the water-powered industries along the Monocacy, a setback from which the Moravians industries never recovered.
The canal and later the railroads also brought prosperity to many, offering entrepreneurs something they never had before-cheap and dependable transportation. One of these was Asa Packer. Originally from Mauch Chunk (today’s Jim Thorpe), Packer had made a fortune in building and operating canal boats, mining and selling coal, and running a chain of general stores in the Lehigh coal field. Packer then applied himself to the task of railroad building and in 1855, the first locomotive traveled from Easton to Bethlehem and then onto Allentown and Mauch Chunk. The Lehigh Valley Railroad, another large South Bethlehem enterprise, was incorporated in 1846 and continued under the influence of Asa Packer. By 1862, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was carrying a larger freight tonnage than the Lehigh Canal.
Turn left at the traffic light at the end of the bridge onto Market Street.
Mention the Heritage Trail – Victorian Link where you can learn about all the families who built these wonderful houses.
As we travel west on Market Street, we are entering the “newer” section of old Bethlehem in which buildings were constructed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Remember that after 1845, Bethlehem ceased to be an exclusive Moravian community, meaning that you no longer needed to be a Moravian to live here. Many of the homes here were erected by the entrepreneurs and businessmen who developed the industries, railroads, banks which flourished in Bethlehem. Here are wonderful examples of Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and Second Empire styles built by people with last names like Fritz, Dodson, Myers, and Sayre-men who ran railroads, banks, and iron foundries. Today some of these homes have been converted to apartments, condominiums, or even a bed and breakfast.
This street is a good vantage point to see the welcoming charm of placing lighted candles in the windows, one of Bethlehem’s most popular Christmas traditions. In Europe, the early Moravians put a lighted candle in every window during the Advent season to welcome the Christ Child. In the 1930s, the president of the Moravian Seminary and College for Women and his wife began to place a lit candle in each window of Colonial Hall (the Brethren’s House) on Christmas Eve. Before long, electric candles, a much safer method, were placed in the windows of the seminary buildings. In 1937, the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce began to publicize Bethlehem nationwide as “Christmas City USA,” and both the city and the community’s residents initiated a massive lighting display.
By 1940, the tradition of a single candle in every window had spread further throughout the city, not only in the Moravians buildings but also in businesses and homes throughout the area. Today, the custom has spread beyond the bounds of Moravian tradition and candles now glow in windows in block after block of Bethlehem’s streets and miles beyond.
A block to the south of here along Church Street is Nisky Hill Cemetery. This was Bethlehem’s second cemetery, and was laid out in 1849, a few years after the town’s reorganization (1845). It is both a Moravian Church cemetery as well as a Union Cemetery that served the United German Reformed and Lutheran Church on High Street, Bethlehem’s first non-Moravian congregation. Active burials took place here beginning in 1864. At this time the cost of a burial lot was $5 for a person over ten years of age and $3 for a person under that age. Nisky Hill Cemetery became the final resting place for many of the movers and shakers of South Bethlehem’s growth in the mid-to-late 1800s. Eugene Grace and his family are buried here overlooking Bethlehem Steel. Hilda Doolittle, known as H.D., an award winning Imagist poet from Bethlehem, is buried in this cemetery.
The buildings on the southwest and northeast corners of Market & New Sts. belong to Moravian Academy, a private, pre-K- grade 12 co-educational college preparatory school which traces its roots to the earliest girls’ school founded here 1742.
As you ride along through the streets, you may have noticed the beautiful Moravian stars or Advent stars hanging in doorways, porches, and windows. This star differs from the Star of Bethlehem that shines from South Mountain. The Moravian Star began as a symbol of celebration and decoration for Christmas. An 1820 diary entry mentions a 110 point star at the Brethren’s House in Niesky Germany. The Moravian Star is also associated with math lessons where students learned to draw and make the geometrical shapes. In 1880 Pieter Verbeek a graduate of the Moravian school for boys in Niesky Germany opened a small book store and began to sell the stars. His son Harry went on to open the Herrnhut Star Factory in 1897 and the Verbeeks mass produced the stars. The factory is still operation today. You can find paper and glass examples of Moravian stars in our VC gift shop.
Left onto New Street
On your right is God’s Acre, the original Bethlehem cemetery. The first burial occurred here in 1742 and the site was used for burials until 1912. About 2,600 Moravian are interred here. The gravestones are all flat to signify the Moravian belief in equality in death. There are also no family plots. People were buried according to their choir. Men, women, and children would, therefore, be buried in separate locations. The gravestones record the cosmopolitan character of early Bethlehem, with Christianized Native Americans, African American, and white European and American Moravians buried next to one another.
On your right stands the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts and the new Collections Resource Center addition with its fine collection of glass, textiles, furniture, paintings, maps, and prints. This museum tells the story of objects made and used in Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley and its galleries and rooms are always beautifully decorated for the holiday season. A bequest from Bethlehem native and avid dollhouse collector, Elizabeth Johnston Prime, makes the Kemerer Museum a destination for one of the premiere dollhouse collections in the nation with 44 antique buildings and 6, 000 tiny pieces. Please stop in for a tour or to find that special something in our gift shop.
Conclusion
On behalf of the Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, I hope that you enjoyed your trip through three centuries of Bethlehem history. I invite you to continue your visit with a stroll down our streets, a nostalgic carriage ride, a visit to our museums, to choose that special gift. Then return in other seasons for many programs which we offer including educational tours for school groups, programs for children, custom tours for groups of 10 or more, and special events such as our the House Tour in June and Blueberry Festival in July.
Check out our website at www.historicbethlehem for more information. Thank you for spending your holiday season with us and I wish you a happy holiday and a safe journey home.
Revised: December 2015 CDM, © Historic Bethlehem Partnership, Inc.
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BBN (private) – Kemerer Museum – New Street
Begin-Kemerer Museum, 427 N. New St. Introduction (bus is parked) Turn right onto Church St., stay to the left at stop sign and go around Moravian College buildings staying to the left. Bethlehem christened, First House
Left onto Lehigh Street (stay in left lane) Who are the Moravians? Settled Bethlehem
Left onto New Street and right around City Center Friedenshuetten/missionaries
Left onto Church Street Japanese tea house and serenity garden, Tondabayashi Historic Moravian Bethlehem, National Historic Landmark District, finest collections Germanic Colonial architecture in the United States Choir system 1744 Single Sisters’ House 1746 Bell House, married couples, Moravian Seminary for Women 1751 Old Chapel, Second place of worship, “Indian Chapel” 1741 Gemeinhaus, a National Historic Landmark, Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, Saal-the first place of worship in Bethlehem 1768 Widow’s House 1748 Single Brethren’s House, Hospital for the Continental army.
At the stop sign on Main and Church Street (go very slowly) Central Moravian built 1803-06, Federal architectural style, National Music Landmark Moravian trombone choir, the oldest continuous American brass musical group, organized in 1754
Right onto Main Street (go very slowly) 1750/1761 Smithy Hotel Bethlehem Christmas Eve in 1741, Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, Bethlehem was christened
At the intersection of Market and Main Streets 1810 Goundie House Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center 1758 Sun Inn, Famous for its fine food and spirits, George Washington
Turn left at light onto Broad Street. (go very slowly across bridge) Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, lights on bridge, and star on mountain
Make a right at Third Avenue Clothing, Color of the ribbon, Style of the cap - Schneppelhaube (schnepp-ell-how-bah) Moravian men dressed like the rest of their colonial counterparts
Right onto Union Blvd., Right onto Conestoga St. Colonial Industrial Quarter - most extensive site of pre-industrial revolution technology in colonial America, part of National Historic Landmark District 1761 Tannery 1762 Waterworks, first pumped municipal water system in the American colonies and is a National Historic Landmark 1869 Luckenbach Mill 1762, General Economy system changed to private enterprise.
Left onto Lehigh Street, Right onto Fahy Bridge South Bethlehem, Industrial Revolution Bethlehem and South Bethlehem united into one city in 1917. 1794, the first bridge, Hill-to-Hill bridge was built in 1924
Right onto Third Street Banana Factory Comfort Suites Crown Inn, Bethlehem’s first hotel, Benjamin Franklin Two mansions - E.P. Wilbur, Sayre Mansion
Turn Left onto Wyandotte Cathedral Church of the Nativity Fountain Hill, Moravians originally farmed this land, Entrepreneurs of South Bethlehem 1846, Francis Oppelt, Hydropathic Institute St. Luke’s Hospital Birthplace of Stephen Vincent Benet
Make a left onto Mountain Top Drive South Mountain Star of Bethlehem Walking Purchase of 1737 Lehigh University, Asa Packer
Left onto Hayes Street multi-colored lights Saucona Iron Company, Bethlehem Iron Company, Bethlehem Steel Corporation Charles Schwab, Eugene Grace, 2nd largest steel producer in the US
Right onto Daly Avenue, Left onto Minsi Trail Bridge Lehigh Canal, 1829 Incorporated borough, open to everyone, in 1845. Asa Packer Lehigh Valley Railroad
Left onto Market Street Lighted candles, Moravian Stars, Nisky Hill Cemetery, Moravian Academy
Left onto New Street, Return to Kemerer God’s Acre Kemerer Museum