<P> On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony during the Great Depression, Mrs. Marion Brown Grace pulled a large switch to turn on the new Christmas street lights and a large wooden star . Mrs. Grace was the daughter of former South Bethlehem burgess, Charles F. Brown, and wife of Eugene Grace, President of Bethlehem Steel Corporation . Hundreds of citizens attended the ceremony and thousands more listened to the speeches and musical performances on the radio . This was the first year the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce adopted the nickname "Christmas City, USA". </P> <P> The Hotel Bethlehem was chosen for the ceremony because it was built on the site of the first building in Bethlehem--a two - room log house--where on Christmas Eve 1741, the original settlers conducted their evening worship . As their benefactor, Count Zinzendorf, observed the farm animals that shared the space and listened to them sing the hymn, "Not Jerusalem, But Lowly Bethlehem", he proclaimed the name of the settlement to be Bethlehem . The people gathered at the 1937 ceremony heard the same words when the Bach Choir sang the old German hymn, "Jesu, Rufe Mich (Jesus, Call Thou Me)", by Adam Drese . </P> <P> The Bethlehem Globe - Times paid for the large wooden star erected on the top of South Mountain, at a cost of $460 . The original star was created with four wooden planks, overlapped to create an eight - point star, 60 feet high by 51 feet wide, mounted on two wooden poles, and lit by 150 50 - watt light bulbs . The installation of the star was done by Pennsylvania Power and Light and the Bethlehem Water Department . The star was erected on the top of South Mountain, on property owned by the Water Department, located in Lower Saucon Township . </P> <P> In 1939, the wooden star was replaced with a star made of Bethlehem steel, at a cost of $5,000 . It had eight rays, with the main horizontal ray 81 feet wide and the main vertical ray 53 feet high . In 1967, the current star, 91 feet high, was installed on the old steel frame and set in a concrete base 25 feet wide by 5 feet deep . Plexiglas was installed to protect the 250 50 - watt light bulbs . In the summer of 2006, the city repaired the base . A crew of municipal electricians changes the bulbs every two years . Beginning in the mid-1990s, the star was lit from 4: 30 p.m. until midnight, every day of the year . </P>

Where is the bethlehem star in bethlehem pa