Number 5 Battery Stack Demolition

On March 28, 1998, the Coke Ovens Division ceased operations, being the last of the Bethlehem Plant primary operations to close. Located on 160-acres, between Hellertown and Bethlehem, the Coke plant employed over 500 people at the height of production.
Bethlehem’s Coke Plant dated back to the Schwab years of Bethlehem Steel. Seeking a more cost-effective source of coke for the Blast Furnaces and gas for the Plant’s gas-fired heating furnaces, Charles Schwab signed a contract with German firm Didier-March, a technologically advanced company who had innovated the coke making process. Didier-March began building the plant in 1910, with the first of 300 ovens eventually constructed becoming operational in 1912.. During the midst of WW1, Kaiser Wilhelm II made an offer to purchase Bethlehem Steel and its assets. Charles Schwab declined the offer and solidified ties with the Allies. By 1917, Didier-March sold its coke operation to Bethlehem Steel for $8 million. In the 80 years that followed, Bethlehem Steel maintained, updated, and modernized the Coke Plant, which was central to their integrated plant operations.
The Coke Oven Division served as a pipeline for a variety of immigrants seeking employment at the Bethlehem Plant, supplementing employees from the surrounding Lehigh Valley. Housing for some of the earliest immigrant employees was established on the grounds of the Coke Ovens in 1923. This first settlement was called the 'Labor Camp' and it consisted of barracks and two-family frame dwellings. Laborers from Mexico soon followed and were joined in the workforce by others from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, and various Eastern European countries Many of their families joined them and went on to settle predominantly on Bethlehem's Southside.
Nearing the end of the 20th century, mines, divisions, and subsidiary companies of Bethlehem Steel were sold off to make up for declining corporate revenue. One by one, the departments inside the Bethlehem Plant were shut down. The Blast Furnaces made iron for the last time in 1995, the Structural Mills closed in 1995, the Combination Mill stopped rolling in 1997. Then, on March 28, 1998 it was time for the “flame” to go out at the Coke Ovens.