Moravian Preservation Master Plan.indb - Society for College and ...

Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
Figure 2-16. 1841 map of Bethlehem showing route of the Lehigh Canal at bottom (Bethlehem Digital Archives).
system and the formal separation of the church
and the town. The lease system was abolished in
1844, and town lots could be purchased free of
ground rent and other restrictions. The town was
incorporated as a borough on March 6, 1845, and
its perimeter was extended in 1856. At the time
of incorporation, the population of the town was
estimated at 1,050, of which approximately 250
were boarding students or non-members of the
Moravian Church (Levering 1903:672-682).
Bethlehem’s environment and economic fortunes
were changed by the construction of the Lehigh
Railroad through the town in 1855. The railroad
destroyed the original “big spring” at the bottom
of the bluff west of the bridge. Two years later, a
second railroad, the North Pennsylvania line, was
built up from the south and connected to the Lehigh
Railroad at a union station. Despite the landscape
changes, railroad transportation facilitated faster
export of coal from the valley. Around the same
time, new industries were emerging to join the
burgeoning coal operations, including zinc oxide
and spelter. However, local industrialists were
beginning to formulate plans for larger-scale iron
manufacturing along the south side of the Lehigh
River (Levering 1903:720-723).
In the mid-1850s, Augustus Wolle of Bethlehem
purchased the Gangewere ore mine and planned
to build a furnace nearby along Saucon Creek. He
incorporated the Saucona Iron Company in 1857.
Charles Brodhead, from whom Wolle had obtained
land along the south side of the Lehigh River,
convinced Wolle to build his furnace at the Lehigh
River site, and to erect an ironworks capable of
producing all kinds of iron rather than limiting his
operation to a blast furnace. A number of investors
joined the venture with Broadhead and Wolle, and
the Saucona Iron Company’s charter was amended
in 1857 to become the Bethlehem Rolling Mills and
Iron Company. The ironworks construction began
in 1861 but was delayed somewhat by the Civil War.
In 1863, the first blast furnace and rolling mill were
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 2 • Historic Overview • 16