Flatiron Hits the Century Mark
The cover image, recently produced by Community Murals of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., is a composite of three images: the Flatiron Building during the celebration of the Borough’s Semi- Centennial in 1915; a worker at Bethlehem Steel’s Benzol Plant, c. 1910; and the title from an 1886 Wells Fargo & Co. money transfer. The fabric mural hangs in a window of the banking room at the Broadway and W. Fourth St. branch, Southside Bethlehem.
The image of the Flatiron Building is the history of South Bethlehem—a survivor of the Borough’s illustrious immigrant and industrial past. Construction of South Bethlehem’s E.P. Wilbur Trust Co. began in 1910. It opened in 1911, four years before the Borough’s Oct. 1915 Semi-Centennial celebration. Three years later in 1918, the Borough was consolidated to include all of “the Bethlehem’s.”