Bethlehem Housing Authority records

The Bethlehem Housing Authority was established in 1939 – one of the first in the nation after the Depression to provide low-income public housing in answer to the 1937 National Housing Act to improve living conditions adversely affected by the Great Depression. Industrial cities like Bethlehem had an acute need to house workers who came to work at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. During the World War II era when the Bethlehem plant of Bethlehem Steel employed 10,000 laborers, there was an urgent need for housing especially in areas adjacent to the mills. The first board of directors for BHA consisted of chairman and mayor Robert Pfeifle, Weir Jepson, Merritt Kreidler, William Coyle and Andrew W. Litzenberger. Mayor Pfeifle, the only five term mayor of Bethlehem, was also a carpenter and builder. Robert Neumeyer (LU Class of 1887) was the first BHA director later followed by Ralph J. Bartholomew (whose correspondence is in this collection) who started the expansion to meet the needs of elderly housing. In an effort to boost local economy and in cooperation with Federal programs to promote the general economy and employment following the war years, the Bethlehem Housing Authority embarked on low-income housing building and urban improvement projects partially funded by Federal funds as well as bond issue. In Bethlehem these plans were: the Temporary War Housing Project 42369 of 1943, the Robert Pfeifle Housing for the elderly known as Project PA-11-5 of 1961-1963 initiated in 1962 consisted of 50 units of garden apartments the first of their type for seniors in the area located in northeast Bethlehem funded by a bond issue, the Pembroke Housing known as PA-11-1 of 1961. The Pembroke Village located in northeast Bethlehem was originally built in 1941 acknowledged the need for low-cost housing consisted of all brick units and designated as "permanent war housing." The ideas was that all other war housing would be demolished at the end of the war – the South Terrace project was so designated but was kept as public housing when Bethlehem's population increased from 50,000 to 75,000 and not totally demolished and rebuilt until 1985 by federal money. This collection is limited to these projects but there were other urban development projects such as the 1963 "Monocacy Creek Urban Renewal Area" when the Route 378 highway was proposed to connect Route 22 to Route 309.

Some of the personal and corporate names,a nd geographical locations mentioned are: Altemus, Charles -- Bartholomew, Ralph J. -- Biro, Joseph E. -- Brown, Harman S. -- Burgess, Archie P. -- Carr, Thomas A. -- Loretti, Frank V. -- Pfeifle, Robert -- Scattene, Frank A. --

Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) Housing Authority -- Brown and Genther Architects -- Anthracite Plate Glass Company -- Lehigh Valley Pipe Fabricating Co. -- Morris Black & Sons, Inc. -- Pennsylvania Association of Housing and Redevelopment Agencies -- United States. Public Housing Administration -- Security Aluminum Window Manufacturing Corp. -- United States Housing Authority -- West Side Electrical Services -- Stewart A. Jellett Company (Engineers) -- The Pidcock Company --

Bethlehem (Pa.) -- Pembroke Village -- Marvine Village -- South Terrace -- Southside Bethlehem (Pa.) -- Robert Pfeifle Homes.