IU13 Lebanon County Office - One Cumberland Building

The IU13 One Cumberland Building serves as the hub of IU13 staff and services in Lebanon County. The building is a home to Lebanon County Early Head Start and Head Start classes.

About One Cumberland Programs

History of the One Cumberland Building

Originally constructed in 1907 as the main office of American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, the overall operation began as Pennsylvania Bolt and Nut Company in 1882 and became part of American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company in 1889 when the latter acquired it as well as the Lebanon Iron Company and East Lebanon Iron Company, both of Lebanon, and J.H. Sternbaugh and Son and National Bolt, Nut and Rivet companies of Reading. American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, with these operations combined, was the “largest manufacturer of bolts, nuts, rivets and kindred articles in the world” and had “4,000 employees with an annual output of 150,000 tons” according to the Bethlehem Steel Lebanon Plant’s “Plant Centennial Edition” of its newsletter. This building was built by American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company as its main business office for the plant in 1907 and began its use when staff moved in on January 6, 1908.

American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company was purchased by Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1916, and this site was the company’s Industrial Fasteners Division through 1986, with the building at One Cumberland Street remaining the plant’s main office. Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Lebanon Plant, on a 100-acre site which includes the main office as well as industrial buildings, through its history remained a significant part of the regional economy with a normal working force of over 2,000 workers through most of its history and the role in the economy as a major purchaser of local goods and even, at one point, being the largest consumer of electric power and gas in the county. At its peak, during World War II (1943), the plant employed over 3,400 people. According to Bethlehem Steel Corporation literature, the plant was “the world’s largest single plant for the manufacture of general-line and specialty fasteners.” The general office at One Cumberland Street included the payroll services of the operation, as shown by physical evidence still remaining in the building including a teller’s window with bars, and a Bethlehem Steel safe. Two large vaults also remain in the building. Even in its final few years before closing, the plant’s workforce numbered in the hundreds.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation closed its Lebanon Plant, and with it its general office at One Cumberland Street, in 1986. The building was sold in May 1986 to the Fourth Lincoln Corporation, was leased to the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 in 1989, and the purchase option exercised when the building was purchased by the Lancaster-Lebanon Joint Authority in March 1991. The Lancaster-Lebanon Joint Authority remains the owner of the building.

Renovations began in July 2001 at the One Cumberland Street facility and were completed in July 2002. The building is now the home of several IU13 programs, serving students from preschool through adult.

The showpiece of the main floor is the Bethlehem Steel conference and meeting room. This room has been redone to maintain the historic character of the building. It also contains an original Bethlehem Steel safe and a number of the artifacts that have been saved from the building. The floor tile of the Bethlehem Steel logo was preserved and is also on display in the room.

• First Built: 1907
• Leased by IU13: 1989
• Purchased by Lancaster-Lebanon Joint Authority: 1991
• Renovation: 2002
• Square Footage: 35,000 square feet
• About the Architecture: Late Victorian industrial use with mixed features including gothic window details, beaux arts influence, and polychromatic effect in stone, designed using natural materials including rose-colored soft Mount Gretna Brick, granite, and sandstone.