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From Logs to Steel…
June 22nd, 2011 |
Megan van Ravenswaay, Coordinator of Audience Development and Community Outreach, is taking over the blog this week to tell you about HBP’s new bus tour.
Very few towns in the Unites States are able to boast 270 plus years of architectural history. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania not only boasts this fact, but those of us at Historic Bethlehem Partnership (HBP), we shout it from the rooftops. 18th century rooftops to be exact.
Bell House Complex
I am thrilled that the most exciting personal project I have undertaken as an employee of HBP to date is finally completed. After a year and a half of researching, writing, training and planning: we now have a bus tour available to the public which describes Bethlehem’s architecture!
Blacksmith shop
My intent was to ensure the tour did not feel like my old college survey courses, which tended to endlessly drone on about the minute details that make up such and such style. I instead wanted to tell the fascinating story of Bethlehem’s architecture. Much like the words that create the sentences in a book, I believe our buildings, builders, homeowners, architects and industries create a fascinating architectural story unlike anywhere else in the world.
I simply did not do my subject justice if the tour guests are not blown away by our town founders, the Moravians. This group consisted of skilled craftsmen, millwrights and carpenters. They built the first log structures within a few, short years. Unlike the old “Lincoln Logs” game, these logs were carefully selected, felled, hand hewn on all four sides and connected together by intricate corner joints. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the building could be up to four storeys in height.
Original log wall at the 1741 Gemeinhaus
I hope the guests have a chuckle while hearing the story about the quiet and unassuming Goundie house and her rebellious, groundbreaking (no pun intended) beer brewer owner.
1810 Goundie House
Finally, I did dare to write about the period that makes us preservationists cringe: Urban Revitalization. To think that Bethlehem’s Main Street was determined to be inadequate and thus we almost lost it and many other historic structures to “beautification” efforts is frightening. This concept leads to my true goal and the mission of HBP. These historic structures are fragile. HBP actively needs your support to keep Bethlehem’s structures viable for future generations. By simply joining us for this new bus tour, your proceeds contribute to the preservation of the structures.
The “From Logs to Steel: Bethlehem’s Architectural Journey” bus tour will run this Saturday, June 25th and every last Saturday of the month this summer. Contact the Historic Bethlehem Schropp Dry Goods Shoppe at 1.800.360.TOUR or visit our website for details and tickets.
