Charles M. Schwab (1862-1939)
Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
American industrialist and pioneer of the US steel industry. Schwab established Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1904. By World War I, it was among the largest steel producers in the world and a major contributor to the war effort. Schwab's South Bethlehem home was here.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Charles M. Schwab rose through the ranks of the American steel industry to become one of its towering figures, and in 1904 he established the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Under his leadership the company grew into one of the world's largest steel producers, its mills feeding the nation's building boom and, during World War I, its war effort. Schwab made his home in South Bethlehem, at the heart of the industrial empire he built along the Lehigh River.
Why it matters
Bethlehem Steel helped forge modern America — its beams framed skyscrapers and its output armed the nation in wartime — with Schwab standing among the industrialists who defined the country's rise as an industrial power.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Charles M. Schwab
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Edwin L. Drake
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1959
Edwin L. Drake changed the modern world in 1859 when he drilled the first successful oil well at Titusville, proving petroleum could be pumped from the ground in commercial quantity. His breakthrough touched off an oil rush across northwestern Pennsylvania and launched an entirely new industry. Drake spent his final years, 1873 to 1880, in this Bethlehem house; in 1902 his remains were reinterred beneath a memorial at Titusville.
Robert H. Sayre
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1993
In the decades after the Civil War, Bethlehem was reshaped by the twin engines of railroading and iron, and Robert H. Sayre stood at the center of both. As the driving force behind construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and a founder of the Bethlehem Iron Company, he helped turn the Lehigh Valley into one of the industrial powerhouses of Gilded Age America. His wealth flowed back into the community through a hospital, a church, a girls' school, and the young Lehigh University he helped charter.
Eugene Gifford Grace
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1997
Eugene Gifford Grace lived here while leading Bethlehem Steel to the height of its power. A protégé of Charles M. Schwab, he served as president from 1913 to 1945 and then as chairman, driving the company to become the nation's largest shipbuilder and second-largest steelmaker. Its mills and yards supplied the guns, ships, and steel that armed the United States through two world wars.
Old Waterworks
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1953
As early as 1754 the Moravians of Bethlehem engineered one of colonial America's earliest municipal water systems, pumping spring water uphill to a tower and letting gravity feed it to a network of cisterns. The pipes were bored from hollowed tree trunks, a practical marvel of frontier ingenuity that delivered running water to the community decades before most American towns had anything like it. The original engine house still stands nearby as a reminder of this early feat of engineering.