the Moravian Church Settlements as a UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/a>, Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites plans to invest $300,000 to create a comprehensive master plan to unify the narrative and accessibility of the city\u2019s 20 historic sites across Northampton and Lehigh counties.<\/p>\n\u201cThe master plan kind of knits all of these things together with intention, purpose and possibility,\u201d Historic Bethlehem board Chair Colleen Gilbert told The Morning Call. \u201cIt really kind of weaves together the connectivity of the touring experience \u2026 [including] maybe even a funicular that could take you from the Colonial Industrial corner up to Main Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites board of trustees recently voted unanimously in favor of the investment. Funding, Gilbert said, is from donors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not taxpayer dollars, this is not public funding dollars,\u201d she said. \u201cThis investment is from the generous donor support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilbert said discussions have been held with about a dozen community partners to see what can be done. The city and other community organizations will be brought in later to discuss the options.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can tell you is that there is a lot of momentum and good insights that have come from these conversations,\u201d Gilbert said.<\/p>\n
What could be done<\/p>\n
The master plan is designed to be a \u201cdurable path forward\u201d for the city\u2019s historical assets. Infrastructure ideas include a central welcome center with parking and transportation between the South Side and the historic district.<\/p>\n
More outside-the-box ideas include a funicular \u2014 a cable-driven railway system designed to travel up and down steep slopes \u2014 from the Colonial Industrial Quarter along Monocacy Creek up to Main Street, or cable cars to the Bethlehem Star on South Mountain.<\/p>\n
The main idea is to make sure all Historic Bethlehem properties don\u2019t get lost in the shuffle to Bethlehem\u2019s other attractions, such as the casino, universities and hotels.<\/p>\n
Gilbert said a firm will create an economic impact analysis to define the scope of the plan. In June, a request for qualifications will be issued to planning firms nationwide that have experience with historic sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economic study essentially defines the scope of the master plan,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cThen we would issue an RFQ to the nation\u2019s top planning firms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plan will create steps for the near- and long-term, she said, turning bold goals into wise investments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we like to say at Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, we\u2019re in the forever business,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cWe\u2019re so excited that we\u2019ve made this investment and that we\u2019re taking the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The organization that oversees Bethlehem\u2019s historic sites is envisioning a plan to create a world-class experience for visitors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,157,182,79601,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-178137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-local-news","tag-moravian-college","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}