This year, the South Bethlehem Historical Society and the Steelworkers’ Archives, through Northampton County funding, will sponsor a fifth year of minibus tours. These “Steeples and Steel” tours pay tribute to immigrants who left their homelands in search of a better life in America, many becoming steelworkers. A guided minibus leaves from St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church, 617 E. Fourth Street, Bethlehem. On the first hour of the tour, through the neighborhoods and churches of South Bethlehem, a representative from the South Bethlehem Historical Society relates the history of working class communities. The second hour is a steelworker-guided tour of the site of the flagship Bethlehem Steel plant, including an introduction to Bethlehem’s Hoover Mason Trestle walkway. The tour package also includes an Eastern European goulash lunch, and an “open house”.
This season’s tour dates are August 18, September 15 and November 3 with tours at 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM.
Tour Schedule:
- August 18
- 9:30 a.m. – Holy Infancy Roman Catholic Church tour
- 1:00 p.m. – St. Michael’s Cemetery tour
- September 15
- 9:30 a.m. – historic Fountain Hill Cemetery
- 1:00 p.m. – Cathedral Church of the Nativity
- November 3
- 9:30 a.m. – St. John AME Zion Church tour
- 1:00 p.m. – cemetery (TBA) tour
Tickets are $25 per person. Please contact the Steelworkers’ Archives at 610.861.0600 or visit www.steelworkersarchives.com for more information. Please check the Archives website for specific church and cemetery sites.
