Helping humanities professionals tap the power of the region's expansive cultural heritage to enrich community life, inspire visitors, and revitalize the economy.
Furnaces D&E, Bethlehem Steel, Photo by Bruce Ward
Click here for background information on MARCH's involvement with the Bethlehem Steel project. Click on the numbers for HAER drawings of Bethlehem Steel High House (1), (2), (3), all from the Library of Congress print and photograph collection. |
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Bethlehem Steel MARCH is very pleased to announce that on January 23, 2008, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation agreed to fund the development of an industrial history research initiative keyed to the Bethlehem Steel site. New scholarly research is one of three goals articulated in the November 2007 report, "Designing Interpretation for the Bethlehem Steel site ... and beyond." Work will begin in June 2008, with a planning workshop at Rutgers-Camden. In November 2007, MARCH presented a working version of an Interpretive Plan to the Bethlehem community at a public meeting. Click on the title to read "Designing Interpretation for the Bethlehem Steel site ... and beyond." Click here for a diagram summarizing desired interpretation, and here for an explanatory key to the diagram. In June 2007, MARCH and the LVIHC hosted a public discussion of priorities for interpreting the Steel site. The city of Bethlehem hosted the meeting at The Ice House, Sand Island, Bethlehem, PA. Click for full list of discussion topics for public conversation. The meeting produced a draft interpretive plan for the site and other Lehigh Valley industrial history resources. In 2005, the interested cultural groups that had come together to write a shared vistion statement in 2004 formed the Lehigh Valley Industrial Heritage Coalition (LVIHC), to coordinate interpretive work at the Steel as the commercial and residential development went forward. In December 2006, the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission awarded a state license for a slots casino to Bethlehem Works Now/Las Vegas Sands casino. Plans for the site include commercial, residential, cultural, and historical functions, located in revamped historic structures and appropriately designed new construction. Open space on the site, and a new arena, will host Bethlehem's successful Musikfest, public broadcasting, and other musical performances. Community reaction to the plans has been positive, especially as the developers intend to preserve most of the important historic structures within their re-use plans. Several structures are still endangered however, and community opinion has been sharply divided about bringing in legalized gambling. In March 2007, MARCH won a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to lead an interpretive planning workshop for the Steel site. The conference is scheduled for June 14-15, 2007, in Bethlehem. Working with the Lehigh Valley Industrical Heritage Coalition (LVIHC), city government, the public, and the site owners/developers, the interpretive plan will guide a broad array of work, including the preparation of a business plan to support interpretation. Leading up to the June conference, public input and debate will be supported by The Morning Call, which will continue after the conference to invite public input in shaping the final interpretive plan. In preparation for the conference, MARCH made the following online study materials available. By reading through these documents, conference participants can familiarize themselves with the history of Bethlehem Steel itself, of the efforts to save and interpret the site, cutting-edge thinking in the field of industrial history, and the plans and models the developers have already shared with the public. Links to the website of LVIHC coalition member Save our Steel provide continuously updated news coverage of developments on the site. 1. Concise history of efforts to save the Steel site, by Meg Sharp-Walton (formerly curator at Historic Bethlehem Partnership). 2. Vision statement that emerged from March 2004 workshop 3. The Challenge of Industrial Museums, by Stephen Cutliff and Steve Lubar 4. The Mission of the Industrial Museum in the Postindustrial Age, by Harold Skramstad 5. Lowell: Building New Appreciation for Historical Place, by Robert Weible 6. Model of re-development plans, as of March 2007, on display at City Hall in Bethlehem. 7. Copies of Pennsylvania Legacies, November 2006 issue devoted to Bethlehem Steel. Published by The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 8. Sharon Ann Holt article from The Public Historian, Spring 2006, on the challenges of the Bethlehem Steel project For updated news and information, visit Save Our Steel. For more information, please contact MARCH by phone at 856-225-6064, or email.
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