South Bethlehem celebrates its 150th birthday this year, and the South Bethlehem Historical Society is out to ensure people notice.

Its board of directors discussed the details for commemorating the milestone at its July 15 meeting at Victory Firehouse.

In all its history, South Bethlehem has never claimed a flag or emblem of its own … until now. Those attending SBHS's annual public meeting Sept. 24 in Northampton Community College's Fowler Center will witness the unveiling of the exclusive South Bethlehem insignia, which will grace banners draped from light poles on the Southside starting in October. The banners will further be emblazoned with two phrases: "South Bethlehem's 150th Anniversary" and "Banner furnished by Members of the SBHS."

Additionally, Bethlehem's own legendary professional football player, Chuck Bednarik, is going to be remembered with a plaque. Board members spent much of their nearly two-hour meeting debating about its placement.

Bednarik aspired to work at Bethlehem Steel as his father had done before him, but when the Philadelphia Eagles came to call, he could not decline their offer.

Board member William K. Scheirer, who graduated from Liberty HS in 1955 (a few years after Bednarik), proposed a motion to contact Mayor Robert Donchez and Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy and say that the SBHS agrees that the most logical location for Bednarik's latest plaque would close to the corner of Elizabeth Avenue and Grenadier Boulevard, directly outside of Frank Banko Field. There it would be "readily visible but not inconvenient to property owners," according to SBHS President Stephen Barron. Bednarik competed there during his time at LHS. The entire board favored the motion.

The SBHS has another plan in the cards - the "Heights Neighborhood Project" - will preserve the important history of that particular cultural community through a colorful, interactive website, complete with background information, photographs and personal testimonies. The neighborhood began at the corner of Anthracite and Second streets and extended upward. It was the site of the notorious picket-strikes conducted by steelworkers during the 1930s and 1950s.

Board member Tom Carroll said that during its heyday the neighborhood was "teeming with activity." Elderly Bethlehem residents who had lived there recall the ethnic food stores and venders that lined the crowded, diverse streets.

Before the project can be implemented, SBHS has a few kinks to work out. It needs to cement the support of Lehigh University. Lehigh houses the society's inventory of historical artifacts and records, and Lehigh students will be key collaborators for the project. Support from local businesses from that time period is also needed. SBHS members are still researching the Heights, and no official timeline for the project has been developed.

Lastly, SBHS is continuing its series of "Steeples and Steel Tours." Participants pay $15 for a package including a one-hour tour of steelworkers' churches (tour-goers enter one of them), a typical steelworker's lunch, and another one-hour segment during which tour guides lead the group through the Steel plant itself. The next two offerings of the Tour are July 25 and Aug. 22.

SBHS members conduct the tours, and while the members range in age and in life experiences, they share a passion for preserving the vibrant history of South Bethlehem. Barron "saw the end of the golden age of the South Side," in his words, but he wants to keep that time alive in people's minds.

Scheirer closed the meeting by recounting one final anecdote about the Steel. His sister, he said, had frequently worked into the night as a schoolgirl, but she had always been comforted by the dinging and clanging from the Steel plant, because she had known that she was not working alone.

Today, the banging and crashing has ceased, but the sounds still echo in the minds of the members of the South Bethlehem Historical Society.