Bethlehem Steel by Steven M. Landis and John K. Landis

Bethlehem Steel
Rusting Relic
by Steven M. Landis and John K. Landis
America Through Time, 96 pp., paperback $24.99

Primarily a collection of photographs taken in 2006, this book captures a period in which the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Northampton County, lay abandoned and decaying before being revitalized as a tourist attraction, with casino, hotel, restaurant and shops. Photographer Steven M. Landis appreciates the aesthetic beauty of industrial artifacts and recognizes the importance of the huge and once-bustling facility.

A tour guide for Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, author John K. Landis has served as an interpreter of the steel plant for visiting tourists and groups, so he knows the remains inside and out. Interspersed among the clearly captioned images are sections of Landis’ prose, recounting how the town’s proximity to waterways, and later railroads, for bringing products was crucial to the founding of “The Steel,” as the company came to be known.

The text gives us a glimpse into the people who founded and managed the company, how raw materials were gathered and used, the ingenious means developed to move materials around the plant, and how the blast furnaces (some 250 feet high) operated. Landis describes the privilege of the company management, some among the richest men in America. In stark contrast are the workers’ struggles and the loss of benefits when the operation began to decline and eventually close.

Steven Landis, who works in the automotive industry, enjoys photographing difficult to reach and abandoned places. John Landis, his father, is a graphic designer and professor emeritus of art at Kutztown University. Together, they have created a book for the general reader, with informative photographs and texts that tell the story of one of America’s greatest enterprises.

John K. Robinson
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, ret.