Those who are new to the Lehigh Valley may recognize the roadside building as the Keystone Pub at the busy intersection of Easton Ave and Willow Park Rd in Bethlehen Township. But when BAPL Librarian Regina Kochmaruk rode past it every day as a teen on the school bus in the 1980s, it was still the Butztown Hotel. So when she struck up a conversation with library patrons Roy Schreffler and his mother Jean Schreffler at the Coolidge library one evening, and mentioned how she hoped to outfit the library with photographs and artwork representative of Bethlehem Township, she was delighted to learn about the existence of a vintage postcard of the hotel. Roy, an avid historian, had family members who worked at the hotel, and he had been thinking about purchasing the circa 1910 postcard for his personal collection. Roy not only purchased the postcard, but he also had the image enlarged and printed on a lovely grained-wood. Visible in the photograph are a group of men, a little boy in a straw hat, a horse, and trolly tracks. “It was such a wonderful surprise to learn that he wanted to donate this really cool piece of township history to BAPL Coolidge – I was not expecting that, and now it hangs right here in the hallway for all of our library patrons to enjoy,” said Kochmaruk.
Jeff, Roy, and Jean Schreffler present the Vintage Postcard Art piece of the Butztown Hotel, circa 1910.