Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
On the corner of West Third and Wyandotte streets near the Hill to Hill bridge in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, stands a Pennsylvania historic marker in front of the Sayer Mansion.
Robert Heysham Sayre was born on October 13, 1824, in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1828, the family moved to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Today, Mauch Chunk is known as Jim Thorpe. Robert's first significant work in engineering was on the Morris Canal in New Jersey, but it was in Mauch Chunk where he met canal boat builder Asa Packer.
In 1854, Robert was the chief engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, while Asa ran the financial operations from his mansion in Philadelphia. It was in South Bethlehem where Robert would establish the railroad headquarters and build his home in 1858.
The next venture for Robert Sayre and Asa Packer was the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1861, Robert persuaded a young Pennsylvania German machinist named John Fritz to come east from Johnstown and take a position with the Bethlehem Iron Company to oversee rail making operations. By the late 1860s, Bethlehem rails were being shipped around South America to California to supply the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific Railroad for North America's first transcontinental railroad. In 1865, after Asa Packer announced plans to fund Lehigh University, it was Robert Sayre who oversaw its growth and development to expand on the success of the Bethlehem Iron Company.
Robert sent John Fritz to Europe to research steel facilities in England and France. By 1873, they had created a process for making steel rails that was to power the company through the economic panic that wiped out many other Lehigh Valley iron businesses. In 1899, the Bethlehem Iron Company was renamed Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Within the community, Robert engaged significantly in various philanthropic endeavors as well. By the time Robert Sayre died in 1907 at the age of 82, he had significantly changed Bethlehem into one of the leading manufacturing centers in the nation. Equally impressive was the two story library at the Sayer family home, with a book collection of more than 17,000 books. In 1899, it was one of the largest personal libraries in the country.
Sayre married four times. He had nine children with his first wife and three children with the fourth wife. As benefactors of his estate, the children sold the Sayre family home. Over the next seven decades, the home would become a fraternity house and low income housing. By 1988, the home had fallen into disrepair and was slated for demolition, but in 1990, John and Norah Capellano purchased the site and utilized federal tax credits to restore the structure, turning it into a historic inn called the Sayre Mansion. In 2002, the Capellanos sold Sayre Mansion to Jeannie and Grant Genzlinger, who continued to renovate the historic mansion back to its former glory. Grant and Jeanne relied upon historic Sayre family photographs to help redecorate the inn's interior. The Sayre mansion in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, offers guests the best of both past and present.
Information for this episode was provided by historian Frank Whelan.
