EES 90

Historic Stones of Bethlehem

Spring 2001

 

Instructors: David Anastasio Carl Moses

306A Williams Hall 223 Maginnes Hall

dja2; 85117 com0; 83302

Office hours: TBA

Required text: John McPhee, In suspect terrain; other materials on reserve in Fairchild—Martindale

Course objectives

The built environment around us is hardly accidental. In the days before structural steel, reinforced concrete, and composite materials, humans depended on natural resources for their building materials. Stone could be transported only at great expense, so construction relied heavily on local materials. The location of historic industries, like steel and concrete in the Lehigh Valley, was influenced by the distribution of natural materials. The European peoples who settled the Valley occupied a land upon which Native Americans had trod only lightly, but they adopted some of the native understanding of local resources and many names for locales and natural features. The natural environment inevitably takes a toll on building materials, so our built environment degrades with time. Some structures are worthy of preservation and restoration, while others make way for new construction. The built environment evolves dynamically along with the community, which changes as industry and commerce change and as different people immigrate to and settle the area.

All of these issues give us an opportunity to look at a building and ask questions like Who built this, and for what purpose? Why did they select those stones? Where did the stones come from? What’s the geologic story behind those stones? How have the stones degraded, and how have they been preserved or restored? What was the local community like when this was built? What did people do then? Where did they work? Where did they come from? How did they transport raw materials and finished products?

Our course objective is to give you a sense of how to go about answering such questions. This course is really not about telling you the answers. Instead, we want you to (1) appreciate the issues involved in such questions, (2) develop the skills needed to pursue the answers for yourselves, and (3) develop the skills needed to effectively present the results of your inquiries to others.

Assignments

We will give occasional ungraded readings or in—class assignments that are required in order to meet the course objectives. Your course grade will be based on five assignments:

Written essay on the assigned text 15%

Small research topic and presentation 15%

Project planning exercise 5%

Class participation 15%

Web product and presentation 50%
  1. The written essay on McPhee’s In suspect terrain is on the topic of tectonics. We will put a couple of additional readings on reserve in Fairchild—Martindale that you should consult for some additional understanding of Appalachian geology and the role of tectonic processes in shaping the Appalachian range. In your essay, which should be no longer than 3 pages (word—processed, double—spaced), you should (1) explain briefly and in simple terms the tectonic view of how the Appalachian range was formed, and (2) describe Anita Harris’ doubts about tectonics. You will need to budget some time for this assignment. And you should understand at the outset that Appalachian geology is still a subject of intense research interest for professional geologists. It is a complicated puzzle with many pieces still missing, which is part of its allure, but there are lots of ways to get frustrated. If you let yourself get bogged down in too much detail, you will not arrive at a comprehensive, satisfactory, final answer. We want you to write about the big picture: What were the main events involved in building the Appalachians? When did they happen? What processes were involved? And what is Anita Harris’ beef with the tectonic view?
  2. Your first presentation will be on a topic that you will select and research. One of our goals with this assignment is to get you working with the library’s resources for the purpose of teaching yourself something. Another goal is for you to begin practicing oral presentations. You will turn in an outline of your presentation along with an annotated bibliography. The outline should provide a framework for your presentation, and the bibliography should provide a citation for each of your sources along with a sentence or two that describes the kind of information you took from that source. Your oral presentation will be no longer than 15 minutes, so you need to be very focused in developing your topic into a presentation. In particular, you will want to focus on issues of regional interest or significance and events taking place in a relevant regional timeframe. Some ideas for topics: cement industry, steel industry, Lehigh River crossings, railroads, canals, the Lehigh River, the Lenape Indians, the ‘walking purchase,’ quarries, glass works, architecture, historic technological innovation, effect of acid rain on building stones, brick industry, mortar, Lehigh Valley demographics. The idea is to work up a topic that will shed some light on the issues raised in our discussion of course objectives. You must tell us your topic selection by week 6. Week 7 will include library and reference instruction and an introduction to scanning and digital photography. We will determine the week of your presentation by lottery.
  3. You will get a handout that presents the project planning exercise.
  4. Class participation is extremely important, you must get involved with the material, and you must get engaged with the issues and the discussions. Keep in mind that this seminar is not always about getting the ‘right’ answer or mastering a constrained set of facts–it is about inquiry. Your instructors are not experts in the field of architectural history, but we are experts in the field of inquiry. When evaluating your performance in this class, we have to make a judgement about how well you meet the course objectives. You cannot make a favorable contribution to that judgement unless you participate fully. Keep in mind that we only meet once a week and that attendance is essential.
  5. The main component of the course, and therefore of your grade, is your study of a particular building. You will select a building on campus, in South Bethlehem, or in the historic part of downtown Bethlehem for study. The building you select must have been built before the 1920s, and must incorporate natural stones in its construction. You will document the Earth materials used in the construction of your building and indicate their type and source; include some information on the source of the stones. You will discuss the construction methods used, either on the basis of construction records or, if you cannot locate actual records, on the basis of inferences that you draw from your observations. You should be able to determine or closely estimate the original construction date and the relative timing of any additions. You may be able to learn about preservation or restoration of your building. You will construct a web site to present and archive a tour of your building that will include photos, scanned documents, and your observations and discussion. You should include a list of resources. You will receive instruction on web page preparation during week 12. You will present your web site in a 15—minute presentation at a time to be determined by lottery during weeks 13 and 14. Web pages will need to be submitted 1-2 days before your presentation so that they can be installed on the server for your presentation. You must tell us the building you plan to study by week 7. This is a very open—ended assignment. Meeting our basic expectations will earn an average to good grade. Achieving a really good grade requires taking some initiative to go beyond the basic expectations. You each have an opportunity to earn an A.