Charles Schwab and Bethlehem Steel
Near Allentown, Pennsylvania
Charles M. Schwab grew up in Loretto, Pennsylvania, went to work for Andrew Carnegie as a young man, and rose to become president of Carnegie Steel at thirty-five. When Carnegie sold to J.
P. Morgan in nineteen oh one, Schwab briefly ran the new United States Steel Corporation. Then he struck out on his own.
In nineteen oh four he established Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which had its South Bethlehem headquarters near this spot. By the time the United States entered World War One, Bethlehem Steel was producing armor plate, gun forgings, and ship hulls on a very large scale. The company eventually became the second-largest steel producer in the country and a backbone of American industrial power through two world wars.
Schwab's home stood here, at the center of an empire he built from scratch.
