Past is always present
Days begin at 6 a.m. when coffee and tea materialize in the lobby, along with a warm Moravian sugar cake. The sweet cake pays homage to how Moravians share food, as well as goodwill, at their love feast services.
The Hotel Bethlehem was built in 1922 to support the lavish lifestyle of Bethlehem Steel’s president, Charles M. Schwab, and his guests. It replaced a 1794 Moravian hotel called the Golden Eagle, later renamed the Eagle, which once housed parents of students at the Moravian Academy and soldiers convalescing after World War I.
During downtime, meeting participants can wander through the hotel’s lower level, where historian Natalie Bock displays bits and pieces of the past, including the door to what was a speakeasy during Prohibition, when the hotel was built.
When Prohibition was repealed in the 1930s, the speakeasy became a bar with murals that depicted the history of Bethlehem. Those murals now hang high in the hotel’s Mural Ballroom, and the bar has moved up to the lobby level. And the speakeasy? It’s headquarters for the housekeeping staff.
A room with a boo
As with any historic place, the Hotel Bethlehem has ghosts of days past. A flamboyant one is May Yohe, whose grandfather operated the Eagle Hotel in 1866, when she was born. As a little girl, she danced and sang for guests in the lobby; when she grew up, she became a stage star and married the owner of the Hope Diamond, which she wore a number of times while that marriage lasted.
Some say they can still hear May singing. And when the player piano turns on by itself, May is held responsible.
One of the hotel’s guest rooms — 932 — is particularly paranormal. Called “The Room With a Boo,” it is one of the most-requested rooms.
Something happened
With the demise of the steel industry over decades and the eventual closing of the Bethlehem mill in 1995, the hotel fell on hard times.
“You know Billy Joel’s song ‘Allentown’?” Bock asked. “Joel wrote the song while staying here. He was really writing about Bethlehem but called it Allentown because he thought religious connotations associated with Bethlehem might confuse the story he was telling.”
New owners bought the hotel in 1999 and brought it back. Its 128 guest rooms and suites are outfitted with bathrooms of Italian marble and 42-inch flat-screen televisions. Amenities like a fitness center and a wine list that’s won an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator add to the experience.
The hotel draws clients from eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including firms such as Pennsylvania Power and Light, Mack Truck and Guardian Insurance.
