With a population of around 800,000 the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania encompasses the cities of Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown. Easton is the smallest with a population of 26,000 and is but 70 miles from NYC (first city after leaving New Jersey along Interstate 78). It sits at the confluence of the Delaware & Lehigh Rivers. It is the home to Lafayette College, the National Canal Museum (the only museum dedicated to the story of America’s historic towpath canals) and the famed State Theatre Center for the Arts with top stage and screen performers. Centre Square with its weekly farmers markets, restaurants, art galleries and antique shops is easily found by looking for the War Memorial topped with the Peace Candle (during the holiday season). I was there to see the Crayola Factory and store and was the only person touring the interactive museum without kids. Next door is the Crayola Store where I loaded up on gifts for my grand nephews and nieces. Crayola produces nearly 3 billion crayons each year, an average of 12 million daily.
Drive 20 minutes to Nazareth and take the one-hour tour of Martin Guitar. Still in the Martin family after 176 years (1833) you don’t have to understand or play the guitar (I don’t) to enjoy the tour of America’s largest and the world’s oldest maker of fine acoustic guitars. See the art of guitar making, from old world tools in this state-of-the-art facility. Follow a guitar from rough lumber to a finished product, which requires more than 300 steps to complete. Visit the museum to see a $100,000 guitar, plus more than 200 rare, vintage instruments on display. They honor the artists who used Martin Guitars including: Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Elvis & John Mayer. Or you can practice in the soundproof studio. I can now tell my Christian friends I have been to Nazareth and Bethlehem.
Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with a population of 108,000. The Liberty Bell Museum tells the story of the Liberty Bell that was hidden here from the British (from 1777 to 1778) who wanted to melt it down for cannon balls. The band shell in West Park is dedicated to civilian concert bands, including the Allentown Band, the oldest civilian band in the country. Muhlenberg College is nearby. I was impressed that a town the size of Allentown can nurture a symphony orchestra (they play at Symphony Hall). It is also home to the amusement and water park Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom (technically it is outside the city limits). The DaVinci Science Center recently relocated to a much larger building on the outskirts of town and is packed with more than 200 hands-on exhibits.
Abutting Allentown is Bethlehem or, as it is called, “Christmas City.” With a population of 72,000 it was founded in 1741 by members of the Moravian Church who came from Germany. It was named after the city in Judea, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. With less than one million members worldwide Bethlehem is the second largest (after North Carolina) center for the Moravian church. There are several structures that I visited that showed the communal living Choirs of the Moravian’s (even the cemetery is divided by affiliation, not family). There is the Brethren’s House, Sisters’ House, Widows’ House, Congregation House and the Chapel. I had a chance to see the Central Moravian Christmas Putz, guided by the 12 year old daughter of one of the volunteers who spent 10 minutes with me explaining all, even the word Putz (from the German word putzen, meaning "to decorate"). It retells the story of Christ's birth through narration and music, while tiny lights illuminate each miniature scene. The figures, many of them antiques of German origin, are nestled amidst live moss, driftwood and rocks. The nearby Moravian Museum (log structure) was built in 1741 and is the oldest existing building in Bethlehem. My self-guided tour showed an architectural history of Bethlehem’s Gemeinhaus (church, meeting place, school, and minister's house). Among the Museum's many features are period rooms furnished to interpret the life and surroundings of the early Moravians.
The Moravian Bookstore is the oldest (1745) continuous bookstore in the country and is located across Main Street from the Historic Bethlehem Visitors Center where my 45-minute guided tour started. There was an exhibit in the next-door 1810 Goundie House called "Roll Out the Barrel: Bethlehem Brews History." This building, along with the Moravian Museum, Burnside Plantation (a mile outside downtown this 6 1/2 acre historic plantation tells the story of a Moravian farm from 1748-1848) and the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Art (period rooms and galleries along with a Victorian garden) are all part of the Historic Bethlehem Partnership. So was my walking tour, the Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides and the restored 1750/1761 Smithy which brings into view the bellows, forge, anvil and fire used by Bethlehem’s blacksmiths. The partnership helps promote all their venues and also works with the Lehigh Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau to promote “Christmas City.” Bethlehem has more original 18th century buildings than Colonial Williamsburg. Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem is presented by ArtsQuest which also promotes Musikfest 2010. Started in 1984 with 118 performers on 6 stages it has morphed into a 10-day festival (August 6-15) with 300 performers, 14 indoor/outdoor stages (11 are free) and over 1 million people attending. Christkindlmarkt operates from the end of November through the 20th of December (Thursday- Sunday) under a giant tent as well as an outdoor plaza area. There are aisles of handmade works by artisans that have to be invited to participate based on the quality of their goods. There is live music, a food court, ice carvings, glass blowing and of course jolly, old St. Nicholas (not Santa Claus). ArtsQuest also operates The Banana Factory, a Cultural Arts & Education Center. In 2011 they will open the ArtsQuest Center for Performing Arts adjacent to the blast furnaces still remaining from Bethlehem Steel.
Sands Casino just opened in Bethlehem on part of the site of the shuttered (1995) Bethlehem Steel. It hosts 3,200 slots, electronic table games, an unfinished hotel and retail shop area, as well as six restaurants. Regular table games have been approved by the legislature. In 1939 Bethlehem Steel was used to make The Star of Bethlehem which sits atop South Mountain. It is 81 feet high and contains 246 light bulbs. It is lit year round from 4:30 PM to midnight and can be seen for many miles. Lehigh University is located nearby. I stayed overnight at the Hyatt Place Bethlehem where I parked my car and walked everywhere in town.
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