The judicious real estate transactions of Philadelphia attorney Tinsley Jeter enabled him to purchase “Fontainebleau,” the former estate of Charles Fiot. In 1866, Jeter parceled the 146-acre estate into building lots. Once developed, the neighborhood was blessed with “phenomenal sunsets,” reported the Bethlehem Times, “remarkably grand and glorious sunsets” that turned Fountain Hill to a “Golden Hill,” a name it had received many years earlier. Along Wyandotte Street, the eastern slope of Fountain Hill attracted commercial merchants and industrial managers of South Bethlehem.

In 1858, eight years before Jeter established Fountain Hill, chief engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Robert H. Sayre built his Villa in the Rural Gothic Style on the corner property of West Third and Wyandotte streets. Eventually, entrepreneurs with “new-money” followed and brought prestige to Fountain Hill with mansions they constructed along West Third Street and Delaware Avenue.

Though Joseph Wharton remained in Philadelphia, other investors like him chose to relocate or live on Fountain Hill. Businessman John Smylie, who made his fortune delivering merchandise from freight depots directly to merchants, discovered the “Hill” an ideal retreat for his family during summer heat in Philadelphia. In 1863, he acquired a building lot west of Robert H. Sayre on West Third and Cherokee streets and erected an Italianate Villa with breathtaking views.

That same year, Robert Sayre’s father William, built his mansion on the corner of Wyandotte and West Third streets across from Cathedral Church of the Nativity. His home had ample space to accommodate faithful Episcopalians for Sunday services during the construction of the church. In 1864, E.P. Wilbur, who later became president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, built his picturesque mansion on the lot north of Sayre and Smylie, flanked by Wyandotte, Lehigh (now Brighton) and Cherokee streets.

Built in the early 1870s across the street from Wilbur mansion, the Anthracite Building accommodated the E.P. Wilbur Banking Company - and the Lehigh Valley Railroad offices, relocated from the confined second floor of Union Station.

Banker, general manager of the Bethlehem Iron Co. and head of Linderman, Skeer & Co. coal operations in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe, Pa.), physician Garrett Brodhead Linderman arrived on Fountain Hill with his wife, Lucy Packer Linderman and their three children, Sallie, Robert and Garrett, Jr. Opposite his mansion on a 3.9-acre lot, Linderman’s greenhouses featured a variety of fruit trees, exotic ferns and hybrid rose collection on the corner of West Third and Uncas streets.

To outsiders, the life style of those who lived and worked in Fountain Hill mansions was relatively secret. A man’s home may have been his castle, but his wife - the lady of the house - took pride in her home and kept it in strict working order.

Each day, she gave instructions to her staff of butlers, servants and coachmen, planned the meals with the cook and kept the house running smoothly, responsibilities no less important than her husband’s. Fathers provided their sons with an education steeped in discipline and rule, rather than having schoolmarms coddle them. When in their teens, many sons were sent to Mount Pleasant Military Academy in Ossining, N.Y., and upon their return, were enrolled at Lehigh University, which guaranteed management positions earned through discipline and education.

From 1860 to 1910, affluence and privilege defined the inhabitants of Fountain Hill. With wealth came a duty to provide examples of good behavior that exceeded minimal standards of decency. Instead of arriving for Sunday services at Nativity Cathedral by carriage, they chose to walk. Wives of South Bethlehem industrialists generously donated food and clothing to orphaned children left destitute during the smallpox epidemic of 1882. Fountain Hill resident and Bethlehem Iron Company manager, William W. Thurston built a home for the orphaned children on Cherokee Street with funds he personally donated.

After months of hard work, managers of industry looked forward to periods of rustication. In the 1870s, G.B. Linderman proudly installed his rural nine-hole “Golf Grounds” on 19 acres, delineated by Delaware and Jeter avenues between Hoffert and Lynn streets.

During the nation’s centennial celebration in 1876, E.P. Wilbur and his cousin, Harry Packer, delighted neighbors with a pyrotechnic display of fireworks on the lawn of Wilbur mansion. Leisure time included railroad sojourns to the “Switzerland of America” in Mauch Chunk, refreshing trips down Mt. Pisgah on the Switchback and overnight lodgings at the Mansion Inn.

In 1888, E. P. Wilbur financed and rebuilt the Fountain Hill Opera House, destroyed by fire four years earlier. A source of culture, entertainment and refinement, the opera house billed various dramatic, comedic and classical music programs for its discerning patrons.

In an effort to keep wealth and prestige within their social circle during dances, affluent parents made certain the “right boys” met the “right girls.” One evening in 1892, the Bethlehem Times covered a soiree given by Attorney J.D. Brodhead for his Fountain Hill guests. Seated among them in the parlor, author Richard Harding Davis read aloud his latest unpublished literary works, while Harper’s Weekly magazine illustrator Charles Dana Gibson busily sketched vignettes of each story. Brodhead’s guests considered the memorable evening “delightfully unique.”

Guest lists to weddings at Nativity Cathedral included every Fountain Hill relative and neighbor of similar social standing. Robert Packer Linderman’s marriage to Ruth Sayre was legendary: the bride walked on a red carpet diagonally from the corner of Nativity Cathedral to the corner of Robert Sayre’s mansion, where the reception was held. After Sallie Packer Linderman married Warren A. Wilbur, their reception was held at the Linderman Mansion, where every detail was noted in the Bethlehem Times, from flower decorations to the couple’s gifts. E.P. Wilbur gave a sumptuous reception at his mansion for his only daughter, Isabel, and her betrothed, Henry McAlpin of Savannah, Ga.

At their Delaware Avenue mansion, the wife of E.P. Wilbur, Jr., tennis enthusiast Katharine Thomas Wilbur played matches on her backyard tennis court with partners like Paul Dashiell, handsome Lehigh University athlete and family friend.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the imperious Ellen Skeer arrived on Fountain Hill with her entourage of Japanese, Swedish and Irish servants. The merry widow of Charles O. Skeer of Linderman & Skeer Co., Mrs. Skeer had taken up residence in the old Frederick Martin house at the corner of West Third and Cherokee streets and quickly established herself as Fountain Hill’s maven of good taste. During her candle light suppers each spring, any guest whose meal was served on her gold china was guaranteed a place in her social circle for the entire year. After supper, Mrs. Skeer insisted her guests view her latest hand-made undergarments imported from Paris displayed in glass wardrobes in her boudoir. Plump with tiny hands and feet, Mrs. Skeer often rode around Fountain Hill in her open victoria carriage, shaded by a white lace parasol. Behind matching bays, two coachmen sat at the front of the carriage wearing maroon coats, white breeches and high black boots. Perhaps a bit eccentric, Mrs. Skeer never failed keeping up appearances on Fountain Hill.

In 1905, the last luminary to reside on Fountain Hill was Charles “Charlie” Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Enamored with French architecture, Schwab renovated the former Linderman Mansion and changed the façade and roof in the French Chateau Style. A pair of heavy chains supported a portico over the front steps that shielded passengers from wet weather while they disembarked from their automobiles. He illuminated the interior of the mansion with electric service and installed two tall iron lamps on the front steps. When not at home with his wife Emma Eurana at their French Chateau in Riverside, N.Y., Schwab conducted business in South Bethlehem and stayed at his Fountain Hill mansion, where he played poker with fellow Bethlehem Steel managers well past midnight.

The first decades of the 20th century greatly affected Fountain Hill. Confronted with the 16th Amendment that levied income tax in 1913, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, the wealthy on Fountain Hill hit hard times and the illustrious “golden age” of mansion life died with its owners and their descendants. Surviving mansions were given a second use. Lehigh University acquired and converted many into fraternity houses.

Soon after Robert H. Sayre died in 1907, his home was converted to the Sayre Apartment house, and today is the Sayre Mansion Inn. The William H. Sayre mansion, formerly an apartment house, a fraternity house and a funeral home, has recently been restored as Chabad House, the Center for Jewish Student Life at Lehigh University - a similar use in the 1860s, when Sunday services were conducted for the faithful during the construction of Nativity Cathedral.

In 1926, the Bethlehem Masonic Association attached the towering Masonic Temple to the back of the E.P. Wilbur Mansion and used it as a club house, thus saving the mansion’s original woodwork and pristine interiors. Recently sold, Wilbur Mansion awaits its future incarnation and improvements to the property.

Once used as a fraternity house, the Smylie Mansion was razed in the 1950s.

After Charles Schwab died insolvent in 1939, Joseph Illick rescued the mansion from becoming a bordello. He partitioned the rooms into apartments and saved the old Fountain Hill landmark. Today, the property bears a state marker, not only dedicated to the man who last lived in the mansion, but also for his role in producing ships, guns and shells that contributed to the Arsenal of Democracy in two world wars - Bethlehem Steel entrepreneur, Charles M. Schwab.