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#1 - A window
display in the 176-year-old Main Street Commons building,
home to Orr's Department Store
in the 1950s, invites people to dream in a building that boasts a dozen
shops
including Keystone Homebrew, Franklin
Vineyards, and a beloved, locally-owned
old-fashioned toy store, Toy Magic.
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#2 - A bartender pours pints
of home brew on a crowded Saturday night at
the ever-popular Bethlehem Brew Works, also
located in
the Main Street
Commons
building. The Brew Works is a 250-seat brewpup and restaurant which
makes
signature beers including Steelworkers' Oatmeal Stout, Valley Golden,
Steelgaarden Wit and the award winning Fegley's ESB. Over 100 types of
bottled
Belgian beer are served in the downstairs Steelgaarden Lounge.
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#3
- Hundreds of Moravian stars are for
sale at the Moravian Book Shop
on Main Street, one of America's oldest
bookstores. The many-pointed star with internal illumination was
originally
made by Moravian schoolboys in Niesky, Germany, in 1850. Years later
one of the
alumni, Pieter Verbeek, began producing and selling them from his home
to
Moravian communities throughout Europe, the British Isles and America.
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#4 - A Santa-fireman
ornament hangs in the Moravian Book Shop's massive
display of glittering hand-blown glass Christmas tree ornaments. In
addition to
many Santa Claus varieties, there are dog breeds, fruits, vegetables,
glasses
of wine and beer, birds, wild animals, sea creatures, skyscrapers,
automobiles,
musical instruments -- and the list goes on. If you can't find the
Christmas
ornament you're looking for at the Moravian Book Shop, it probably
doesn't
exist.
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#5 - Condensation forms on
the decorated windows of the Cigars
International Store on Main Street.
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#6 - A snow-covered,
illuminated evergreen tree stands in front of the
Moravian 1750/1761 Smithy (blacksmith & locksmith
shop),
recently restored
by architect David Scott
Parker of Southport,
Connecticut and architectural restorationist Bob Doerr of Easton, PA.
It's open for tours on weekends.
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#7 - Horse-drawn carriage
rides through historic Bethlehem have become a holiday tradition for
many local familes. Rides are provided by Bethlehem Carriage
throughout the holiday season; reservations are a must.
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#8 - Located on Conestoga
Street, Christkindlmarkt is an annual holiday market featuring handmade
works by American artisans and craftspeople, live music and traditional
German & Austrian foods.
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#9 - On sale at
Christkindlemarkt are traditional handmade ornaments from Rothenburg,
Germany including wooden figurines of doctors, chimney sweeps,
toymakers, butchers, carpenters, and beer servers. Prost,
comerade!
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#10 - Members of Lafayette College Alumni
Association receive a guided tour of the Sun Inn on Main Street, originally
built and owned by Moravians
and famous during Colonial times for its fine wines, cuisine and
hospitality. The Moravian Church owned the hotel just as it owned all
the land and other trades sin Bethlehem.
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#11 - The Moravian's
meticulous documentation of the Sun Inn's visitors
still exist. George & Martha Washington and General Marquis de
Lafayette
were there during the Revolutionary War. Lafayette, one of the richest
men in France,
rented the entire floor of suites at the Sun Inn for a week but
stayed only two
days.
Guest John Adams
made this account of the Sun Inn: "When We came
into the Town We were directed to a public House kept by a Mr. Johnson,
which I
think was the best Inn I ever saw. It
belongs it seems
to the Society, is furnished, at their expence, and is kept for their
Profit,
or at their Loss. Here you might find every accomodation that you could
wish
for yourself, your servants and Horses, and at no extravagant Rates
neither." Many of the visitors to the Sun Inn have completed their education and enhanced their understanding of history by their attendance to an online university. Their passion to know is kindled in the comfort of their own home and continues at their own pace.
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#12 - With 128 rooms (24 of
them suites) in the center of the historic
district, the Hotel Bethlehem, built in
1922,
is perhaps the modern equivalent of the Sun Inn. The hotel's ballroom
boasts
seven large, colorful murals painted by George Gray in 1937 that retell
the
history of Bethlehem. The hotel's
pub, called The Tap Room, offers great views through its giant
Palladian
windows.
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#13 - A vintage toy puppy
beckons from an antique store window on Center
Street.
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#14 - The Moravian Single
Sisters' House on Church Street was used as a
combination dormitory,
industrial and religious center for single women within the community.
The
Moravians had a unique and highly-controlled social system which
divided men,
women and children into groups based on their sex, age and marital
status. The
groups were known as "choirs" and they participated in common work
and worship together within their own residences.
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#15 - A second
view of the Single Sister's House reveals the sturdy and
handsome construction methods used by Moravian architects and builders
in the
late 1700s.
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#16 - The Christian
Education building on West Church Street houses many Central MoravianChurch events and
activities including a Christmas shop that sells traditional Moravian
stars and candles.
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#17
- A couple inside Bethlehem's City Hall check out a lighted scale
model of the Bethlehem Steel Sands Casino
project that will eventually put 3,000 slot machines,
300 hotel rooms, forty upscale shops, eight restaurants and four
nightclubs on
the former grounds of the industrial manufacturing giant, Bethlehem Steel.
The project has caused a great
deal of controversy - and excitement - within the community.
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#18
- Crowds watch an ice sculptor during First Night Bethlehem,
an annual New Year's Eve party
featuring live music, magicians and other entertainers that takes place
at Payrow Plaza , the location of City Hall
and the Bethlehem Public Library.
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#19 - A few minutes before
the clock stikes midnight on New Year's Eve, a commemorative ice
sculpture is completed at Payrow Plaza
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#20 - People gather outside
City Hall to watch a New Year's Eve pyrotechnics display, fired from
Sand Island Park along the Lehigh River.
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#21 - A light snow falls on
a community Christmas tree decorated with ornaments made by children
who attend Bethlehem's Lehigh Valley Academy and Marvine Elementary
school.
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#22 - A youngster
contemplates the height of the city's 75-foot Christmas tree in Payrow
Plaza.
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