Bethlehem Pennsylvania and its Historic Districts

Bethlehem was named on Christmas Eve, 1741, by a group of Moravians who relocated from North Carolina and settled at the confluence of the Lehigh River and Monocacy Creek. The canal and the railroads lured large-scale industry to the south bank of the Lehigh River and the Bethlehem Iron Co., soon dominated the town’s economy and way of life. Steel made from local iron, coal and limestone was milled and forged, launching the Industrial Revolution of the late 19^th Century.

Bethlehem is the Lehigh Valley’s Oldest City

Bethlehem has six distinct National Historic Districts as well as two National Historic landmarks. Many of its original structures built by early settlers still line downtown streets.

The Central Bethlehem Historic District includes 165 buildings, 6 sites, 9 structures, and 4 objects. It is primarily residential, but also includes commercial buildings along Main Street. Most of the buildings were built between the mid-18^th to early-20^th century. The district encompasses building that reflect Bethlehem's development from a Moravian community, 1741-1844, to an industrial based economy, 1845-1938.

The Historic Moravian Bethlehem Historic District encompasses a complex of the oldest surviving buildings in Bethlehem. The district was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012 for its unique assemblage of communal religious buildings and history. It occupies a 14.7-acre (5.9 ha) area of central Bethlehem; at its core is the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem and adjacent properties, located at Main and West Church Streets. The museum property includes a connected series of 18^th century stone buildings, several of which served as communal living facilities, and a 1751 chapel.

The museum also owns properties near the creek, including the industrial 1761 tannery building, and the Old Waterworks which is also a National Historic Landmark as the first pump-driven North American municipal water supply. This area is also archaeologically significant, as the early Moravians developed it industrially from an early period. 

God's Acre has been established as one of the oldest colonial cemeteries in America

Sun Inn was created as a place for non-Moravian people to take up residence while they did any sort of business with the people that lived in the town. The Sun Inn was used often during the American Revolution, including George and Martha Washington, Ben Franklin, John Hancock, john and Samuel Adams.

 

Colonial America Heritage and the Industrial Revolution

Museums and Educational Travel

One of the Largest Historical Societies in America, LCHS comprises the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum, a state-of-the-art historical research library, as well as 6 galleries with 13,000 square feet of exhibits. The Society administers 7 museum sites that date from Colonial America through the Industrial Revolution along with 35,000 historical artifacts, 80,000 vintage photographs, and over 3-million documents.

Books Maps Photographs and Other Resources for Historians and Genealogists

Educational Tours and outreach programs designed by Museum Educators that tell stories and enlighten adults, schoolchildren, scouts and others about local heritage with visits to historic sites and the Heritage Museum with its exhibits, research library and archival collection.

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A Coal Burning Iron Furnace that Looks Like a Medieval Castle

Lockridge Furnace was built in 1868 and produced some of the iron that helped transform America from a nation of farms into an industrial giant. The Museum comprises several buildings in a park setting.

The Saylor Park Cement Kilns were erected in 1893 to power the industrial revolution and produce cement. Learn about this industry and the people that worked in it.

Haines Mill has stood on the banks of Cedar Creek since colonial times.

The Early Technology that Supported Farm Life

Troxell-Steckel Farm Museum is an authentic Pennsylvania-German farm house that provides a unique perspective on farming in the Lehigh Valley.

Delaware and Lehigh Valleys Coal Iron Steel and Canals

The Coal Iron Steel and Canals of the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys

The Delaware & Lehigh five county region of Northeastern Pennsylvania developed in the late 18^th Century as a result of the anthracite mines, the iron and steel industries, and the canals built to reach Philadelphia .

Land People and History the Lenape of the Delaware Valley hunted deer, grew grains and vegetables, and caught seafood along the coast.  The Lehigh Valley was of great importance because it was one of their main east-west pathways, intersecting with major north-south aboriginal trails in the Delaware Valley. Despite its prominence as a crossroads, the Great Valley was the site of few permanent villages, although they often camped at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers in what is now Easton.

  

 

Delaware and Lehigh Valley Local Native Plant Gardens, Family fishing in New Hope and Bristol Amish Market 
The first Europeans in the Lehigh Valley were Scots-Irish who followed the Saucon and Indian creeks and established settlements in today’s Northampton County. Large numbers of Germans came into the Lehigh Valley in the 1730s.  Among them were the Schwenkfelders from Saxony and Mennonites, known for their skills as craftsmen and millers, and for establishing schools.  Most of the Germans became known as Pennsylvania Dutch and grew maize, squash, wheat and livestock. At least 50 different nations and ethnic groups have been identified among the immigrants of the 1800s; many arrived at Ellis Island and traveled straight to the Lehigh Valley. Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton thrived by the late 19^th Century.
The Delaware and Lehigh Valleys played a major role during the American Revolution. George Washington’s crossed the Delaware River in 1776, the second reading of Declaration of Independence was held in Easton and the Liberty Bell was hidden from the British here.

The Discovery of Anthracite in 1791, Carbon County set the stage for America’s Industrial Revolution, the founding of small towns, the birth of industrial powerhouses such as Bethlehem Steel and the development of the Lehigh and Delaware Canals. Also known as stone coal because of its rock-like hardness, it appeared atop hills and under valleys in seams or veins up to 12 feet thick. Industries involving iron, steel, Portland cement and zinc processing flourished, followed by tanneries, silk and textile mills. These raw materials led to commercial, transportation and cultural opportunities along a 165-mile route through the Wyoming, Lehigh and Delaware Valleys.

Planning Your Trip assumes uniquely local dimensions wherever you go; the activities that you, the visitor – local, or global –  select and irrespective of the length of your stay, are unique of the community you are visiting and rooted into the local economy, history and traditions.

TEMA develops personalized travel itineraries based on client interests by leveraging an in-depth knowledge of your destination, superior client service in the planning stages and throughout the trip or event as well as logistics expertise to reduce accommodations and transport costs and transfer times.

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Transportation and Communications the Lehigh River carved a trail that would eventually become the backbone of future transportation routes. Footpaths along the river banks gave way to canals, then to railroads, and finally to modern-day highways. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Lehigh Gap, a dramatic landscape where the Lehigh River breaks through Blue Mountain, also known as Kittatiny Ridge, the final ridge in the Appalachian chain. The Delaware Canal was built during the early 19^th Century from Easton to Bristol on the Delaware River fostering development of textile mills such as the Grundy complex, steel mills like the Fairless Works and planned suburban community like Levittown. Completion of the Lehigh Canal further accelerated development of the Valley.

The 1862 floods destroyed all the dams, locks and canal boats and coal shipping shifted to railroads.  The Lehigh Valley Railroad, which ran through Easton and on to New York City, was the first rail line to have a significant impact. The Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad and Reading & Pennsylvania Railroad created competition for shipping coal and other goods. The Delaware Canal was a transport link with limited industrial impact on the rural, farm region it flowed through.

Culture and The Environment in more recent times, the region has been in the forefront of land conservation, historic preservation and an arts movement that celebrates land and landscapes. The local culture draws from the Moravian settlements experience in which all men were equal, hence a unique and broad cultural environment in which music, art, education and religious tolerance flourished, as shown in the communal dwellings, churches and industrial structures in Bethlehem and Nazareth.

                                                 

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