The Man and the Farm
Archibald Johnston
Archibald Johnston (1864-1948) was a mechanical engineer who rose through the ranks of what became the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. While first vice president, he led a municipal consolidation campaign to create the modern city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania from the boroughs of Bethlehem and South Bethlehem. and was subsequently elected its first mayor.
As mayor, he presided over the construction of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, significantly enlarged the city's area, extended paved streets, water mains, and municipal sewerage, and provided the city's first municipal park. Johnston and his wife Estelle Borhek Johnston had two children, Archibald Borhek Johnston (referred to as “Arch Junior”) and Elizabeth Margaret Johnston, who married George Kingsley. Both children had homes on the property.
Camel’s Hump Farms
In 1919, Johnston began acquisition of hundreds of acres of land along Monocacy Creek near “Quaker Hill.” He renamed the hill “Camel’s Hump” after its distinctive shape and hired Curtis Lovelace, a young architect, to build a 6,000 square foot home in its shadow. The home, in the Georgian Revival style, was at the center of his new “Camel’s Hump Farms” (also called “Camel’s Hump Farm”) on a bluff overlooking the Monocacy. He and his wife Estelle occupied the new home in 1923.
During his life, the farm was self-sufficient, growing wheat, vegetables, apples, poultry, and sheep. The “big house” provided Johnston with a place close to the source of his income, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation where he was a member of the board of directors, and to his family’s social life in Moravian Bethlehem, where he was president of the Bethlehem Moravian Congregation. Johnston lived in the “Big House” until his death on February 1, 1948.
Janet Johnston Housenick, one of Johnston’s three granddaughters, left the “Big House” and 55 acres of property to Bethlehem Township for use as a passive park. Township commissioners, in collaboration with a foundation established by her for the property’s maintenance, are working to preserve and maintain the property.