Monocacy Creek Embankments
The walls built by “Stonewall Johnston”
MAP 11
The 1929 map (inside front cover) shows stone walls lining Monocacy Creek from the Cement Bridge (MAP 8) to the Spring (MAP 13), with the label, “Stonewall Johnston - His Mark.” In the 1920s, no regulatory body existed to dictate what could or could not be done with waterways. If there were regulations within the city limits of Bethlehem, Johnston and his properties were safely outside the city limits in Bethlehem Township, a predominantly agricultural community at the time.
Harry Trexler, a prominent business leader in nearby Allentown, was responsible for extensive stone mason work in Allentown before his death in 1933. Johnston, an executive of Bethlehem Steel before and after his four years as mayor, was acquainted with Trexler and the two may have employed some of the same masons.
During the 1920s, Johnston created stone embankments along the four-tenths of a mile between the road bridge and the rail bridge near the spring - almost a linear mile of substantial stonework. While no records are now available about the construction, the walls will remain for centuries as “his mark” on the region’s hydrology.