The Rise and Fall of Martin Tower
In The Bookmark, Martin Tower is one of the reasons Pete Schaeffer relocated to Bethlehem, and when he shares the site with Abbey, their relationship moves one step closer. Martin Tower always fascinated me too, and I was there on May 19, 2019—the day the walls came tumbling down.
My husband and granddaughter await the implosion of Martin Tower.
Attribution: Anne Supsic
The Construction
Attribution: Frank Supsic
Construction of Martin Tower began in 1969, following a groundbreaking ceremony led by the building’s namesake Edmund F. Martin, Bethlehem Steel’s chairman and chief executive officer. Three years later, the completed tower stood an impressive twenty-one stories high and had captured the title of tallest building in the Lehigh Valley.
Built with (you guessed it) Bethlehem steel, the impressive structure served as the world headquarters for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The tower was designed to house 1300 people, and its unique cruciform shape rewarded every top executive with a coveted corner office. The cost for this corporate edifice? $35 million, spent at a time when the company should have been cutting costs instead.
In its Heyday
The Golden Gate Bridge
Attribution: Jeffrey on Flickr
At its peak, Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest steelmaker in the world, employing 31,000 workers—nearly half the population of the town. Wages were high, and everybody wanted to work at “the steel.” Bethlehem’s steelworkers created the steel used to build the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, and hundreds of warships, helping to ensure victory in World War II.
The executives at Martin Tower must have felt like masters of the universe, managing this mighty operation from plush offices with hand-woven carpets, walnut paneling, marble bathrooms, and brass doorknobs engraved with the company’s special I-beam logo. Gourmet meals, created by a four-star chef, were served on silver platters, and for added convenience, Martin Tower offered its own barber shop, car wash, auto-servicing center, and gym.
The Demise
Attribution: Frank Supsic
In 2001, Bethlehem Steel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after fighting a losing battle against rising labor costs, competition from foreign steel, and possibly corporate mismanagement. Over time, Martin Tower became a kind of poster child for corporate greed. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 with this statement:
“The tower is a powerful representation of an inward-thinking corporate culture in a time of increasing foreign and domestic competition, labor unrest and legacy costs that is emblematic of the problems that foreshadowed the deindustrialization of America.”
The Demolition
Attribution: Michael J. Cuozzo, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On May 19, 2019, after forty-seven years as the Lehigh Valley’s tallest building, Martin Tower disappeared in an implosion lasting just seventeen seconds. Explanations for the demolition vary: some say the cost of asbestos removal and installation of a sprinkler system made the property undesirable. Others say the cruciform design, so prized at the time of construction, was inefficient and made the building too difficult to redevelop. This video, courtesy of Amber Carey, captures the final seconds of Martin Tower..
The Aftermath
Piles of rubble near the former Martin Tower site.
Attribution: Frank Supsic
Today, the site where Martin Tower once stood remains vacant. The rubble in the photo above has been removed, and the land leveled, but redevelopment has yet to begin. In February, a revised plan increased the number of apartments and scrapped plans for a gas station and restaurant, but for now, the land lies desolate without a hint of its former glory.
References
History of Martin Tower with photos of interior
