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Hotel Bethlehem

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1920–1922, Ritter and Shay. 437 Main St.
  • (© George E. Thomas)
  • Lehigh Valley National Bank (© George E. Thomas)
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)
  • (William E. Fischer, Jr.)

Hotel Bethlehem, a nine-story brown brick structure, is the work of Ritter and Shay, Philadelphia's gifted skyscraper architects who also designed Allentown's Americus Hotel ( LH3).

Hotel Bethlehem is less decorated than the Americus, perhaps testimony to the no frills management style of Bethlehem Steel, who subsidized the hotel for most of its life. The murals in the lobby and restaurant depicting significant moments in the town's history are by New York artist George Gray. Nearby at 459 Main Street is the Woodring-Roberts Corporation building, formerly the Lehigh Valley National Bank (1889), a Richardsonian Romanesque essay in restrained power.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Main Street
George Myers Building
Central Moravian Church
Old Chapel
Second Single Brothers’ House

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Hotel Bethlehem", [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-NO25.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 277-278.

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