A Year of Preservation, Innovation, and Community Impact: Thank You for Making 2025 Extraordinary

As we look back on an extraordinary year, we are filled with gratitude for the many ways your support has helped us preserve and share Bethlehem’s remarkable history. Thanks to you, 2025 has been a year of restoration, renewal, and forward momentum at Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites (HBMS). Your generosity has touched every corner of our organization—from major preservation milestones to beloved exhibitions, community programs, and educational experiences that inspire thousands of visitors each year.

Preservation Progress that Protects Our Heritage

One of this year’s proudest achievements was the reopening of the 1782/1834 Grist Miller’s House, where transformative restoration work – recognized with a Pennsylvania Preservation Award – has brought new life to one of our most cherished structures. The house has quickly become a dynamic hub for hands-on learning, hosting artisan demonstrations and workshops inspired by the trades once practiced in the Colonial Industrial Quarter—pottery, fiber arts, wood carving, and more. These programs reconnect visitors with the artistry and innovation that shaped early Bethlehem and continue to influence the region’s cultural identity.

Just steps away, we broke ground on the Overlook on History, an innovative connector between the 1869 Luckenbach Mill and the Grist Miller’s House. This new space will serve as a flexible 360° classroom, capable of welcoming two classrooms at a time for immersive, interactive learning. With your continued support, the Overlook will expand our ability to educate students year-round and strengthen their connection to Bethlehem’s living heritage.

At the 1762 Waterworks—the oldest municipal pumping station in the United States—we reached a long-anticipated milestone: the complete restoration of the historic water wheel to working order. Visitors can once again witness the incredible engineering that powered Bethlehem in the 18th century.

Meanwhile, the 1761 Tannery, the only surviving 18th-century tannery building in the world and a key component of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Moravian Church Settlements – Bethlehem, continues to undergo crucial water mitigation work. With engineering plans complete, pumps are now being installed to remove groundwater from the first story, ensuring the long-term preservation of this irreplaceable landmark ahead of its planned 2027 reopening.

At the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, significant exterior maintenance and painting were completed this year, preserving the building’s historic character and protecting the collections housed within.

Exhibitions That Brought Bethlehem’s Stories to Life

Alongside preservation efforts, HBMS’s 2025 exhibitions offered fresh, meaningful ways to explore Bethlehem’s history:

• Working Hands: Supplying a Revolution shares the stories of the skilled artisans whose craftsmanship fueled early American independence and helped build a new nation.
• Baked into Bethlehem traces the city’s baking traditions from the early Moravians—who viewed baking as both nourishment and spiritual practice—through Bethlehem’s industrial period and the culinary contributions of immigrant communities. Today’s beloved festivals, like Apple Days and Blueberry Festival, continue this vibrant legacy of shared food and shared culture.
• Checking In, which closed this fall, offered a compelling exploration of the rich social and cultural history embedded in Bethlehem’s historic hostelries. Through objects, stories, and community connections, the exhibition highlighted how inns served as places of gathering, welcome, and shared experience—much like our mission today.
• And this season, the Trees of Historic Bethlehem, funded by the Bealer-Greene Christmas Endowment, returned with a breathtaking showcase of the most imaginative and memorable trees from the past twenty years—a nostalgic and joy-filled celebration for visitors of all ages.

Expanding Access & Welcoming More Visitors Than Ever

This year also marked an important step forward in how we connect with and serve our members and the broader community. HBMS expanded its Heritage Concierge hours, ensuring more consistent on-site support, smoother admissions experiences, and dedicated assistance for members planning visits, tours, and special outings. With additional coverage during peak seasons and weekends, guests now benefit from improved wayfinding, easier access to museum information, and enhanced customer service across all our historic sites.

We also updated our membership program to better reflect how families and friends experience our sites together. Admission for four adults is now included at the Heritage Family level and above, allowing households to welcome more loved ones, guests, and out-of-town visitors. This expanded access ensures that our historic sites can be shared more generously with the people who matter most.

Together, these improvements – enhanced visitor services and more flexible membership benefits – underscore our commitment to creating welcoming, accessible, and meaningful experiences for every person who enters our museums and historic spaces.

A Year of Impact—Powered by You

From expanded school tours to vibrant heritage tourism programming, from historic restorations to imaginative exhibitions, everything we accomplished this year was made possible because of you. Your belief in the importance of preserving Bethlehem’s past—and making it accessible to future generations—drives every success we celebrate.

As we look toward the year ahead, we do so with profound appreciation. Thank you for sustaining this work, strengthening our community, and ensuring that Bethlehem’s stories continue to be told.

You are here. And so is your impact.