Showing posts with label The Christmas City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Christmas City. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A Moravian In Paris ...


“I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.”

  ~ Garry Winogrand

    ~ 1928-1984

  ~ American street photographer from the Bronx, New York, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Though he photographed in California, Texas and elsewhere, Winogrand was essentially a New York photographer.

An umbrella portraying the Eiffel Tower and the Moravian Star are the stars showcased in a window display of “Paisley Sun – A Luminous Gift Shop” in historic downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Scenes of Main Street, feted for Christmas, are reflected in the window on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, when the area was bustling with early Christmas shoppers.

A Moravian star (German: Herrnhuter Stern) is an illuminated Advent, Christmas or Epiphany decoration popular in Germany and in places in America and Europe where there are Moravian congregations. The stars take their English name from the Moravian Church, originating in Moravia. In Germany, they are known as Herrnhut stars, named after the Moravian Mother Community in Saxony, Germany, where they were first commercially produced.

Bethlehem is known as The Christmas City. On Christmas Eve 1741, in a stable, while a small group of Moravians were singing a hymn with the stanza “Not Jerusalem, Lowly Bethlehem” Count Nicolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf christened this little town “Bethlehem.” Since that time Christmas in Bethlehem has been central to the city’s identity. From the first documented decorated Christmas tree in America to the efforts of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to get Bethlehem nicknamed “Christmas City USA” in 1937, to the current time when both sides of the river boast Christmas markets filled with artisan craft, retail and food vendors, Bethlehem is rife with one Christmas celebration after another.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Historic Hotel Bethlehem At Christmastime ...



“Silver bells, silver bells
It’s Christmastime in the city …”
     ~“Silver Bells”
 ~composed by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans
                       ~ 1950
Early Christmas shoppers share in the hustle and bustle of the season in front of Historic Hotel Bethlehem in historic downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

During the Prohibition in 1922, Charles M. Schwab built the Historic Hotel Bethlehem as it’s known it today. However, that little spot in the town of Bethlehem has a history with deep roots.

In 1741, a group of Moravian missionaries built, on that very spot, the famous First House of Bethlehem. It was a log house, built to shelter the Moravians as they expanded their presence in the area. The structure also served as a stable. On December 24, 1741, the leader of the Moravian missionaries, Count Nicholaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, sang a song about Bethlehem, which inspired the citizens to name the town.

The Moravians were very dedicated to their mission. Using this spot as a home base, they started “schooling the unschooled” and converting the “heathen” indigenous people. The Moravians were so passionate and dedicated that within 20 years, they had built 50 more buildings and were working on several different industries. All from within the structures they had built.

In the late 18th century, under the first presidency, George Washington, the First House of Bethlehem was converted to the Golden Eagle Hotel. The hotel operated in this incarnation until 1919, when the building started housing convalescing soldiers returning from World War I.

In 1922, Schwab’s fortune was on the rise and he was one of the stars of American Steel. Schwab built the hotel to cater to the clients of the enormous Bethlehem Steel Company and even back then, it featured amenities equivalent to modern day luxuries, such as, a fitness center, a barber shop, shoe shine, and coffee shop.

Nowadays, the Historic Hotel Bethlehem proudly displays its story in its lower lobby's Hall of History. Artifacts from the town’s history (religious settlement to industrial boomtown) such as photographs and printed materials are showcased as well. A 1936 George Gray painting located in the Mural Room depicts the transformation of the culture surrounding the building.

Historic Hotel Bethlehem, a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2002, dates back to 1922.

Bethlehem is known as The Christmas City. Since that Christmas Eve 1741when a small group of Moravians were singing a hymn with the stanza “Not Jerusalem, Lowly Bethlehem” Count Nicolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf christened this little town “Bethlehem.” Since that time Christmas in Bethlehem has been central to the city’s identity. From the first documented decorated Christmas tree in America to the efforts of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to get Bethlehem nicknamed “Christmas City USA” in 1937, to the current time when both sides of the river boast Christmas markets filled with artisan craft, retail and food vendors, Bethlehem is rife with one Christmas celebration after another.