Exposed brick walls frame the massive space, with sunlight beaming through an oculus window.
A relic — a 5-ton capacity crane that once hoisted massive motors in need of repair — stands idle among random scraps and piles of wood and other discarded objects.
It’s through mammoth windows, however, that you get a true sense of history from the view that electric repair shop workers had for decades — the blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel.
The raw space is the next chapter in the story of Bethlehem’s National Museum of Industrial History. The Smithsonian-affiliated museum, just over 5 years old, is hoping to double its indoor space by expanding into the second floor of its headquarters — which was once Bethlehem Steel’s electrical repair shop.
Thanks to some help from a million dollar grant, the museum can start thinking in real terms about how to take the next steps to expanding upward.
“We are on the precipice of a big moment for the museum,” said Glenn Koehler, the museum’s director of marketing and public relations.
‘A blank canvas’
The museum opened in 2016 on the first floor of the former electric repair shop, which dates to 1913, displaying artifacts that tell the story of local and national industrial history.
Over the years, the museum amassed an enormous collection, not only of thousands of Bethlehem Steel artifacts but from factories and industrial sites around the country. There’s just not enough room in its first-floor space to show the scope of the collection.
Kara Mohsinger, the museum’s president and CEO, said expanding would allow the museum to tell more of the story of our industrial history.
But to say the roughly 20,000-square-foot area on the second floor is unfinished would be an understatement.
“We’re all excited,” Koehler said. “It’s really a blank canvas.”
The second floor has electricity. But only recently could museum staff access the floor easily, thanks to a new elevator.
Before the second floor can be used, the museum has to install windows, repair the aging roof and install a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. That’s just the beginning. While it needs a lot of work, the space has a spectacular view of the former Steel campus — a view that could make that second floor an excellent event space.
“Even with everything going on, people want event space,” Koehler said. “There’s still people looking for rent space that can’t find it.”
The space could also be used to show off more of the museum’s extensive collection. Mohsinger said that would also save the museum money because it would be fewer items that would have be stored in a climate-controlled storage facility.
Mohsinger also said the museum plans to add some much needed office space as well as possibly a library area.
A big boost
Of course, all these plans require money. Mohsinger puts the price tag at around $5 million.
Koehler said one of the next steps is a fundraising campaign.
Late last year, the second-floor plans got a major financial boost from the state — $1 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funding, which is awarded for acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historical improvement projects. Qualifying projects have a regional or multijurisdictional impact, help create or maintain jobs, and generate economic activity.
“This grant will be a good catalyst to start the process,” Koehler said.
Republican state Sen. Pat Browne, who announced the grant late last year along with Democratic state Sen. Lisa Boscola, said the money is awarded to institutions that have a significant community impact.
“We understand the value of the museum not only to the Lehigh Valley but to the entire nation,” Browne said. “The potential of the museum is limitless.”
Bethlehem’s new mayor has also talked with museum leaders about their expansion plans.
“We talked about how the city can support these efforts as their plans start to take the next step,” Mayor J. William Reynolds said. “Expanding is going to give them the opportunity to tell more of the story of the Steel and give them the opportunity to preserve a lot more of that story.”
Already growing
The second floor wouldn’t be the first expansion for the museum.
Foundry Park is a 17,000-square-foot outdoor addition that is about 80%-85% completed. The $350,000 project feature significant artifacts from Bethlehem Steel and the mining industry, telling the story of how raw materials were converted into finished steel products. The park nearly doubles the museum’s available space and lets visitors see working machines and follow in the footsteps of generations of workers.
Another addition: The Air Products Pavilion, which was built with a $100,000 grant from the Air Products Foundation.
All of it adds up to more ways to tell the story.
“It can grow to a national story,” Mohsinger said.