Fifty or a hundred years from now, historians will write about whether the city council voted to uphold a historical context for the Moravian buildings, or whether it voted to override its Historical Architecture Review Board once again, after it voted for a new, smaller and taller parking garage, which may enable a seven-story apartment building that will loom over historical Main Street.

I grew up in this city, playing on the Wesley Methodist youth basketball team with Gordy Mowrer. After returning to my hometown some 22 years and 400 council meetings ago, Gordy and I talked a couple of times about the city, its history, and its future. Not long before he died, Gordy told me that his biggest mistake as mayor was urban renewal.

Then he realized the future was around the corner on Main Street. Those were his exact words. Gordy’s view has been borne out, which was dramatically evidenced on the Saturday AFTER this past Thanksgiving, when the crowds on Main Street were so thick that one had to pick his way along the sidewalk. And if tourists find Main Street attractive, I would imagine that many residents like it as well.

Is the Woolworth building a contributing structure? Most people would agree that it is so plain as to be virtually ignorable, if that’s a word. But the banality of its architecture is precisely why it does contribute, because its plainness is another example of the myriad architectural styles on Main Street, showcasing the rich history of commercial architecture over the years in Bethlehem. What about the future history of what will be built now? That is already taking place on steroids, as the ethnic history of the Southside is being eradicated by new structures. Main Street is among the little that is left of historical commercial architecture. It is true that the roof line of the Woolworth addition will match the roof line of its neighbor next door. A similar argument was made for the so-called boutique hotel on West Third Street, which has 16 more rooms than the Hotel Bethlehem. But any planning decision is a precedent, just as judicial decisions are. We don’t, I think, want to encourage similar roofline adjustments up and down Main Street, perhaps other adjustments, and maybe a demolition or two, eventually duplicating the mini-canyons being constructed on the South Side.

If you override the HARB once again, the precedent will have been set, and Main Street will eventually become indistinguishable from what is happening on the Southside. The historical context of the Moravian buildings will have been lost, and Bethlehem will have a reduced quality of life. If that happens, I will not be opposed to a reconfiguration of the light bulbs on South Mountain, transforming the Star of Bethlehem into a dollar sign, which would at least exhibit transparency, about which we often hear.

William Scheirer

Bethlehem