Chester County Historical Society
West Chester
The Chester County Historical Society (CCHS) is housed in two adjoining historic buildings that, together, create a 56,000-square-foot complex in the middle of downtown West Chester.
CCHS first moved into the historic Horticultural Hall in 1942. The hall was built in 1848 and designed by architect Thomas Ustick Walter, best known for adding the U.S. Capitol’s central dome.
CCHS expanded by renovating the neighboring historic 1908 YMCA building to house its new cultural center, which includes offices and event space. The cultural center opened in 1995 and connects via skywalk to CCHS’s museum in the Horticultural Hall building.
Today, the YMCA’s former gymnasium is a 2,600-square-foot auditorium with a stage and audiovisual equipment including a projector and a large screen. The auditorium is the largest event space in downtown West Chester and is within walking distance of shops, restaurants and the historic Hotel Warner, said Cyndi Meadows, venue sales and event manager for CCHS.
Meeting groups will also find classrooms and a conference room that can be used for breakout space. Two galleries in the Cultural Center can also be reserved for receptions, depending on availability.
The center’s recently renovated outdoor terrace “is beautiful,” Meadows said. Three glass doors lead to the terrace, which can accommodate up to 80 guests, depending on setup.
Meeting attendees can also explore museum exhibits. CCHS will completely renovate its permanent exhibits this summer, moving away from the current emphasis on decorative arts to more of a timeline-based history of Chester County. The museum’s current rotating exhibit, “Many Nations: Chester County,” will stay up through December and tells of the county’s varied populations over the past 300 years.
www.chestercohistorical.org/cultural-center
Historic Bethlehem Hotel
Bethlehem
In 1921, Charles M. Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel, made the decision to build a new, modern, 200-room hotel in Bethlehem. Schwab’s Bethlehem Hotel opened in 1922 and was a hopping place during the Roaring ’20s, welcoming a range of business magnates, dignitaries and politicians, including Winston Churchill.
The hotel reopened in 1999 following a complete restoration that stripped away the 1970s shag and shabbiness and returned it to its original glory.
“One our proudest moments is our original marble grand staircase,” said Jenny Frei, the hotel’s catering director.
Guests will also find original two-story Palladian windows in the lobby and the 1741 on the Terrace restaurant, in the hotel’s former solarium, where the massive windows overlook the city’s historic district.
Those windows were removed from the Grand Ballroom at some point, but their arching outlines today frame enormous mirrors that reflect the ballroom, which can seat up to 250 for banquets. In the Mural Ballroom, which can seat 140 people for meals, seven large historic murals line the top of the two-story ceiling. The murals, painted in the 1930s and originally located in the Tap Room, depict the history of Bethlehem, including its founding by Moravian settlers who met in 1741 in a crude cabin on the hotel’s current site.
On the mezzanine level, the Lehigh and Lafayette meeting rooms can each seat up to 30 guests, who enjoy views from the top arch of the Palladian windows. Those rooms, along with 1741 on the Terrace, are the hotel’s most requested event spaces, Frei said.
The hotel also works hand in hand with Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites to use nearby historic venues for events, such as receptions at the functioning 1750 Smithy, where guests can sip cocktails while a blacksmith works.
