Fountain Hill Historic District

Fountain Hill is a residential district on a hill south of the Lehigh River in Bethlehem, with mansions, smaller houses, and a cathedral built mostly between 1857 and 1905. Its early residents were senior managers of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Bethlehem Iron Company. Robert Sayre, the railroad's chief engineer and later general superintendent, built a Gothic Revival estate at Third and Wyandotte streets in 1857. Garrett B. Linderman, a Bethlehem Iron general manager, completed a cut-granite Chateauesque mansion at 557 West Third Street in 1870. The district also holds the railroad headquarters, a circa 1886 building on Brighton Street. Nativity Episcopal Cathedral, a stone Gothic Revival church dating to about 1866, stands at the district's eastern edge. Most of the houses are brick, and about 21 have been converted to apartments. The district is regarded as Bethlehem's largest and best preserved group of late 19th century high-style residences.