Central Bethlehem Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century houses, churches and commercial buildings line the streets of this eastern extension of Bethlehem's central historic district. Most contributing buildings are brick, stone or frame, and about eighty percent are vernacular houses with little ornament. The area also includes high-style examples, including a three-story Second Empire house at 204 East Market Street built about 1870 and a Gothic Revival house at 458 Center Street built about 1865. Roughly half of the contributing buildings date from 1845 to 1884, and the rest were built through 1938. The district is listed for its record of Bethlehem's shift from an eighteenth-century Moravian settlement to an industrial city, and for its concentration of architecture from that period. Three churches, built as Bethlehem's religious life became more diverse, are also part of the extension. Nisky Hill Cemetery holds graves of Moravians alongside those of Bethlehem Steel leaders such as Robert Sayre, E.P. Wilbur and Eugene Grace.