Sign Of Bethlehem ...

“Life is one big road with lots of signs.”

            ~ Bob Marley

               ~ 1945 ~ 1981

 

The iconic Hotel Bethlehem sign atop the historic hotel lets travelers on various roads leading to the Pennsylvania town know they’ve arrived in The Christmas City. A trace of snow can be seen below the chimney as winter prepares to segue into spring on this mid-March afternoon in this monochrome capture.

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. The year 2024 marked the fourth consecutive year Historic Hotel Bethlehem was named America’s Best Historic Hotel by USA Today – a grand slam. Bruce Haines is the longtime owner of the hotel.

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.

 

That Grand Old Poem Called Winter ...

“That grand old poem called Winter”

        ~ Henry David Thoreau

                ~ 1817 ~ 1862

A picturesque 19^th century barn is the cornerstone of this peaceful and poetic winter monochrome scene – the barn and corn crib being part of the historic 1756 Troxell-Steckel Farm Museum – that I shot on a late February afternoon in Egypt, Pennsylvania.

The Coplay Creek runs through this 31 acre property, which was once part of a 400 acre farm. The centerpiece of the property is a stone farmhouse, built in 1756. A spring house and the barn are also on the property. The farmhouse is an authentic Pennsylvania German farmhouse and offers an example of Lehigh County agricultural history. The Troxell-Steckel house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

It is the region’s only authentically complete Pennsylvania German farm house, resembling its medieval ancestors and giving a captivating glimpse of the area’s farm history.

The Pennsylvania German farmhouse was constructed in 1756 by John Peter Troxell, an immigrant from Germany in search of a better life. When the structure was built, twenty years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, this farm sat on the edge of wilderness. George Washington was only 24 years old, and America was ruled by the King of England. At the time, the house was reported to be the largest residence on the Pennsylvania frontier. The fortress-like masonry walls of this structure are more than two feet thick.

In 1768, John Peter Troxell sold this farm to Peter Steckel, another immigrant from Germany. Pennsylvania Germans were one of the largest immigrant groups in Eastern Pennsylvania. Their traditions enriched American culture.

As someone of Irish-German heritage, I love getting a glimpse into Pennsylvania German history in the area.

This historic site is owned and operated by the Lehigh County Historical Society and is open for seasonal tours and events.

The Troxell-Steckel Farm Museum may also be accessed from the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

 

Snowtime At The Springhouse ...

“I’ll own it’s cold for such a fall of snow.”

      ~ “Snow”

    ~ Robert Frost

     ~ 1884 ~ 1963

~ four time Pulitzer Prize winner

 

A fresh early March snowfall paints itself around the Springhouse at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania, as icicles fringe the roof of the log cabin on a sunny and beautiful late winter afternoon in this high contrast monochrome shot.

 

The log cabin, one of my very favorite places to be and to photograph, was part of Springhouse, the summer home of General Harry Clay Trexler (1854-1933), an American industrialist who built a business empire in Allentown. The park is his namesake.