USA Vacations

Pennsylvania Vacations

Allegheny Portage Railroad

Allentown

Altoona

Bethlehem

Erie

Gettysburg

Harrisburg

Lancaster

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Scranton

Bethlehem, Pennslyvania Vacations, Luxury Hotels and Bethlehem Travel Packages

Bethlehem City Photo

Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 71,329, making it the seventh largest municipality in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading and Scranton.

Bethlehem lies in the center of the Lehigh Valley, a 731 square miles (1,893 km²) area that is home to more than 750,000 people. The Lehigh Valley region embraces a trio of cities (Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton) within two counties (Lehigh and Northampton), making it Pennsylvania's third-largest metropolitan area. Smaller than Allentown but larger than Easton, Bethlehem is the Lehigh Valley's second most populous city.

There are three general sections of the city, North Bethlehem, South Bethlehem and West Bethlehem. Each of these sections blossomed at different times in the city's development and each contains areas recognized under the National Register of Historic Places.

In July 2006, Money magazine included Bethlehem as one of its "Top 100 Best Places to Live."[1] It placed number 88.

Bethlehem History

Religious roots
On Christmas Eve in 1741, David Nitschmann and Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, leading a small group of Moravians, founded the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the "Forks of the Delaware" River along the banks of the Monocacy Creek by the Lehigh River. They named the settlement after the town of Bethlehem in Judea, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. According to the Moravian Church in North America Web site, Bethlehem became the headquarters of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America after the Unity Synod of 1848.[2] Originally a typical Moravian Settlemment Congregation where the Church owned all the property, until the 1850s only members of the Moravian Church were permitted to live in Bethlehem. The historic Brethren's House, Sisters' House, Widows' House and Gemeinhaus (Congregation House} with the Old Chapel are remnants of this period of communal living.

In 1762, Bethlehem became home to the first water works in America to pump water for public usage. While George Washington and his troops stayed in Valley Forge, his personal effects were stored at the farm of James Burnside, which is now a historical museum (Burnside Plantation).[3] The prosperous village was incorporated into a free borough in the County of Northampton in 1845.

On March 27, 1900, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem presented the American debut of Lutheran composer Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor in the city's Central Moravian Church.

Bethlehem Steel F.C.
In the early part of the 20th century, Bethlehem was a hotbed of American soccer, with the corporate Bethlehem Steel team, named Bethlehem Steel F.C. after the company, winning the 1918-19 championship in the National Association Football League (NAFL), and then winning what amounted to national championships three more times during the next decade (1920-21 in the NAFL; 1926-27 in the American Soccer League I; and in 1928-29 winning the EPSL II). The Bethlehem Steel sides consisted largely of British imported players and also had the distinction of being the first American professional soccer team to play in Europe, which it did during its tour of Sweden in 1919. The team also won the U.S. Open Cup, now called the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup after billionaire sports franchise owner Lamar Hunt, five times beginning in 1915, and for the last time in 1926.

The Christmas Star
On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony, Mrs. Marion Brown Grace pulled a large switch to light the new Christmas street lights and a large wooden star. Mrs. Grace was the daughter of a former South Bethlehem burgess, Charles F. Brown and wife of Eugene Grace, President of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Hundreds of Bethlehem’s leading citizens attended the ceremony and thousands more listened to the speeches and musical performances on the radio. The switch for the lights was located in the ballroom of the Hotel Bethlehem. This was the first year that Mayor Robert Pfeifle and the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce adopted the nickname "Christmas City, USA" for Bethlehem. Donations from the community were raised for the street decorations. The Globe Times underwrote the expense of the large wooden star on the top of South Mountain, at a cost of $460.

The star of Bethlehem viewed from Main Street at night. The star was attached to two wooden poles and was smaller than the current star. The star was created with four wooden planks, overlapped to create an eight point star. The dimensions were 60’ high, 51’ wide lit by 150 bulbs, 50 watts each. The installation of the star was done by PP&L and Bethlehem Water Department. The star was erected on the top of South Mountain, on property owned by the Water Department, located in Lower Saucon Township. The lighting ceremony, in the Hotel Bethlehem, was an appropriate location. This was the site of the first building in Bethlehem, a two room log house. On Christmas Eve in 1741, the original settlers were conducting their evening worship in this building. As their benefactor, Count Zinzendorf, observed the farm animals that shared the space and listened to the words of the hymn they sang, “Not Jerusalem, But Lowly Bethlehem.” he proclaimed the name of the settlement to be Bethlehem. The people gathered at the 1937 ceremony also heard those same words when the Bach Choir, under the direction of Dr. T. Edgar Shields, sang the old German hymn “Jesu, Rufe Mich (Jesus, Call Thou Me),” by Adam Drese. Malcolm Gross, the Mayor of Allentown, Joseph Morrison, Easton’s Chief Executive, Bethlehem School administrators, and prominent church officials were also there to celebrate. In 1939 the wooden star was replaced with a star made of Bethlehem steel, at a cost of $5000. It had eight rays with the main horizontal ray extended eighty-one feet and the main vertical ray was fifty-three feet long. In 1967, the star was redesigned, and Plexiglas was installed to protect the 250 light bulbs, 50 watts each. It was installed on the old steel frame which was ninety-one feet high and twenty-five feet wide at the base with a depth of five feet, set in concrete. In the summer of 2006, the city attended to some much needed repairs of the base. Rust was scraped off the steel base then it was primed and painted at a cost of $25,000. This is the star we see today. The star is surrounded by a 9-foot chain link fence topped with razor wire. A crew of municipal electricians changes the bulbs every two years. It can be a dangerous job so the crew wears safety gear and they avoid bad weather. Beginning in the mid-'90s, the star was lit from 4:30 p.m. until midnight, every day of the year. This schedule continues today. However during World War II, from 1941 to 1945, none of the Christmas decorations in Bethlehem were lit. At the time, Bethlehem officials explained that the lit star made "too good of an air raid target" and “during the global strife it didn't seem right for the lights to be all lit up when our boys were out in the darkness fighting for us." When lit, the star can be seen from as far as Wind Gap, 20 miles away. The star has become an important symbol for Bethlehem. Blue-and-white signs surround the city and direct tourists to "Follow the Star to Bethlehem."

Center of American Heavy Industry
Bethlehem became a center of heavy industry and trade during the industrial revolution. Bethlehem Steel, founded in 1904, began producing the first wide-flange structural shapes made in America. The company was the first to produce the now-ubiquitous "I-beam," and was a major supplier of armor plate and ordnance products during World War I and World War II. After roughly 140 years of metal production at its Bethlehem plant, Bethlehem Steel ceased operations in Bethlehem in 1995.

www.wikipedia.com

Expert Bethlehem Vacation Planners

Book your Bethlehem Vacation or Tour Here