"The Lebanon operation began in 1881 as the Pennsylvania Bolt & Nut Company. Bethlehem Steel Co. acquired the plant in 1917 from the former American Iron & Steel Manufacturing Co." [GlobalFastenerNews]
This plant got at least some of its iron ore from Cornwall, PA.
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| Abandoned, Old or Interesting Places - Eastern PA posted Bethlehem Steel Company Furnaces, Factory Railroad Lebanon PA Andrew Denelsbeck shared  Thanks for picture. Always wondered what kind of facility this was. Looks like early blast operations. What did the mill become known for - output and input? Michael Maitland Output was fasteners (nuts, bolts, rivets, pole hardware, etc.). That would explain why the plant survived after the blast furnaces became obsolete.James Torgeson Dennis DeBruler And the sister fastener plant to Lebanon was Bethlehem Seattle, now Nucor. |
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| 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 posted Postcard image of Bethlehem Steel • Undated! James Torgeson shared Tom Sedor: they made bolts James Torgeson: Tom Sedor Yes, a fastener plant, along with mine bolts, etc. |
Michael Maitland provided three images as comments on James' share.
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Was this the same mill?
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| Randy Jaye posted Early 20th Century Large Industrial Complex - North Lebanon Furnace, Lebanon, Penna. Historic Pennsylvania Postcard - ca. 1905. James Torgeson shared |
A Pinterest photo after the blast furnaces have been removed and the buildings to manufacture steel products have been built.
This photo verifies that the cluster of buildings in the middle of the town was the Lebanon Works.
This topo map provided the railroad names.
This photo verifies that the cluster of buildings in the middle of the town was the Lebanon Works.
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| Hagley Steel-works, Bethlehem Steel Corporation (Lebanon, Pa.) |
This topo map provided the railroad names.
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| 1955 Lebanon Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
The blue line and the green connection on the south side of the plant was Pennsy. The railroad along the north side of the plant that still exists was Reading and now it is owned by Norfolk Southern.
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| RR Aban Map |
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| Newspapers |
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| Closeup of Text |
In 1984, the employees did vote to accept a pay cut to make the plant more competitive with respect to imports. But the plant closed in 1985 anyhow. Bethlehem filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and closed in 2003. [ldnews, absolute paycount of 3] Employment peaked at 2,400. Babe Ruth used to play on the company's baseball team. Conestoga Log Cabins & Homes is one of the companies that now uses some of the buildings that Bethlehem Steel sold for $500,000. [ConestogaLogCabins]
Bethlehem also manufactured fasteners in Seattle, WA, and Birmingham, AL. The five operations in Lebanon were fasteners such as nuts, bolts and rail spikes, bar mill and roll shop, mine roof bolts, sucker (well) rods, and cooper shop. [mcall] (Did the cooper shop make the silo rods? Or were they really making barrels in the 1980s?)
Zachary Ryan Batdorf posted three photos with the comment: "Tomorrow Is the public sale for Keystone Spikes, This, to the best of my knowledge would be the last remaining continuously running shop left from the closed Bethlehem Steel, Lebanon PA plant which shut down in the mid 80's. It was once the counties largest employer, manufacturing industrial hardware. This shop making Boat Track and mine Spikes. Hopefully this is not the end of the line for the machines, but will be the last of the forgings coming out of this plant which spanned 5 city blocks. A shame to see, no doubt. Did anyone on this page work here back in the day? I Thought maybe this would be of some interest here."
Rick Yerly: We had two spikers at keystone steel and wire. When they closed our nail mill was told only 6 in the world capable of making 12”x 3/8s spikes.
Zachary Ryan Batdorf: The cold forge spike machine shown here is advertised as being able to do up to 3/8 X 12’s. Might be one of the 6, I don’t know.
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Hagley has several more photos of these plants including interior shots of the machinery.
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Great!! Your blog is very informative! Thanks for sharing!!
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