Bethlehem Steel Stacks

Knowing that Steve and I would be spending a month in eastern Pennsylvania, I did some research on fun things to do. Bethlehem kept popping up as a fabulous walkable town. So one Sunday, while staying in Hatfield, we headed there for an art show at the old Bethlehem Steel Stacks.

When Steve and I were growing up in Philadelphia, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an industrial powerhouse that operated facilities around the globe. Founded in 1857 in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, it eventually occupied 1,800 acres along the Lehigh River. But it shut down the main plant there in 1995.

Fortunately the legacy lives on in the cultural SteelStacks. SteelStacks is a vibrant campus utilizing the former site of Bethlehem Steel that celebrates arts, culture, family events, community gatherings, education and entertainment.

ArtsQuest began as a community effort to revitalize the economy in Bethlehem after Bethlehem Steel closed. It was founded in 1984 with the launch of Musikfest, an event that encompasses all of the town of Bethlehem.

Over the many years since its founding, the non-profit added annual events like Christkindlmarkt. They opened the Banana Factory Arts Center in 1998 and managed to transformed part of the former steel plant into the ArtsQuest Campus at SteelStacks. This transformation includes the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas, the Musikfest Café and the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks in 2011.

Now, ArtsQuest is one of Pennsylvania’s largest non-profit arts organizations. ArtQuest is committed to making the arts available to everyone. At the same time they are enriching the community through music, festivals, visual arts, film, comedy and educational programming.

But they do more than just put on events. ArtQuest also supports working artists. And they deliver arts education for students of all ages as well as contributing to the economic and cultural energy of the Lehigh Valley.

ArtsQuest annually offers more than 1,750 free performances and approximately 2,800 ticketed events. That’s a awe inspiring 4,500 plus yearly events that bring in more than $143 million in economic impact for the Lehigh Valley!

So lucky for us, one of those free events was happening the day we chose to explore Bethlehem and the Bethlehem Steel Stacks. We went to an art show there.

Our first stop was for lunch at one of the food trucks. We chose the one with the longest line because we felt it indicated that they had the best food. Hangry Joe’s Nashville Hot Chicken and Wings was a wise choice! Our chicken was good and spicy, juicy and had that crispy crunchy coating that’s crave-able.

Following our yummy lunch we wandered up and down the aisles of artists booths. At the booth of Florida artist Jessica Stone, we were impressed by her unique offerings. Jessica created art from shells she collected on the beach. To those shells she affixed small crystals to look like they were spilling out of the shell. We couldn’t resist. So we bought one that was perfectly RV sized.

Before we left the town, we stopped for a stroll down Main Street. It was so charming. The street was lined with outdoor restaurants and fun little souvenir shops and even relics of a bygone era like the Woolworth’s Building and the Sun Inn tavern, distillery and museum that had been there since 1758!

Steve and I agreed that Bethlehem and the Steel Stacks were well worth the trip. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon!