Bethlehem sits on a long ridge above the Ammonoosuc valley, about 1,400 feet up, looking south across the river at the whole northern wall of the White Mountains from Cannon to the Presidentials. That view and that altitude made it, after the Civil War, one of the great summer resorts of New England: the air on the ridge was said to be free of the pollen that tormented hay-fever sufferers in the cities, and by the 1880s more than thirty hotels lined Main Street and the surrounding hills, filled every August with people who had come to breathe. The American Hay Fever Association held its meetings here, and when it excluded Jewish members, the Hebrew Hay Fever Relief Association was founded in Bethlehem in 1919 and ran its own hotels for decades.
Almost all of the hotels burned or were torn down, and what is left is a small, high, quiet village with a handful of things worth 30 min on the interstate: the Colonial Theatre, a 1915 movie house still running films and concerts; Rek-lis Brewing on Main Street; the Rocks, the Forest Society's estate and Christmas tree farm on the edge of town; a network of mountain-bike trails built since 2017; and that view, which is unchanged. Bethlehem is the middle stop of a northern loop with Littleton and Franconia, and the quietest of the three.
This guide covers the theater and the brewery, the Rocks in its seasons, the resort history that explains the village, the trails, and how to fit Bethlehem into a day from the lodge.
The Colonial Theatre, since 1915
The Colonial Theatre on Main Street opened in 1915, designed by the architect Francis J. Kennard of Tampa, Florida, in an Egyptian Revival style, and it has been showing films ever since, which makes it one of the oldest continuously operating movie theaters in the United States. In the grand-hotel era its audiences were wealthy summer people from New York and Boston, and the studios used the Colonial to test-market new pictures before release; the story is told on the theater's own walls. Today it is a nonprofit that runs first-run and independent films, live music and events in a single old auditorium with a marquee out front, and it is the reason to be in Bethlehem after dark. Check the calendar; the season runs strongest from spring through fall.
Rek-lis Brewing on Main Street
Rek-lis Brewing Company at 2085 Main Street is the village's brewery and its evening room: a brewpub with its own beers, a full food menu, live music on weekends and a patio, founded by Ian and Marlaina, whose name for the place is a joke about the ambition of opening a brewery in a village this size. It has worked; on a Friday in summer the patio is full of riders off the trails and skiers in winter, and it pairs with a film at the Colonial a few doors down into the easiest evening in the North Country. Hours run into the evening most days; check before a weekday visit.
The Rocks: Christmas trees, maple and a view
On the western edge of the village, the Rocks is the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests' North Country center, on the 1,400-acre estate that John Jacob Glessner, a Chicago industrialist, began assembling in 1882 as a summer farm; his descendants gave it to the Forest Society in 1978, and it became a Christmas tree farm in the 1980s. Today the estate sells more than six thousand cut-your-own and pre-cut trees and some 2,500 wreaths each holiday season, taps about a thousand maples in early spring for a sugaring operation with public tours, and keeps walking trails through the fields and stone buildings that are open to the public year round, with the mountain view Glessner bought the land for.
The Christmas season, from the week after Thanksgiving into December, is when the Rocks is busiest, with tree cutting, wagon rides and the kind of cold-weather cheer that fills our winter suites. Maple weekend in March is the other event. In between, the trails and the view are quiet and free; our holidays guide covers the tree farm as a December outing from the lodge.
The resort that breathed: Bethlehem's hay-fever history
Bethlehem's rise was medical before it was scenic. After the Civil War, physicians prescribed mountain air for hay fever, and Bethlehem's ridge, high and dry and swept by wind, acquired a reputation as a place where the sneezing stopped. The railroad brought the sufferers by the thousand, and by the 1880s the village had more than thirty hotels and dozens of great private cottages along Main Street and the surrounding roads, with a summer population many times its winter one. The American Hay Fever Association met here. When it barred Jewish members, Bethlehem's Jewish summer community founded the Hebrew Hay Fever Relief Association in 1919 and ran its own hotels and synagogue, and Bethlehem remained a Jewish summer resort into the late twentieth century, a history the village still carries.
The automobile, the Depression and fire ended the hotel era, and the Colonial Theatre and a few converted buildings are what remain of it in the village. The Bethlehem Heritage Society's walking tour and the historical society on Main Street tell the story for anyone who wants it, and the view from the ridge explains the rest.
The Bethlehem Trails
Since 2017 the Bethlehem Trails Association has built a network of mountain-bike and multi-use trails on the hills around the village, from long hand-built descents to gentle family loops, and it works with the PRKR MTN trails in Littleton and the Franconia Area chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association next door; between the three towns there are more than seventy-five miles of trail within a few minutes' drive. Trailheads are around the village and off Route 302 and Route 142; the association's map has the current network. For a walker the lower trails and the Rocks' fields are pleasant; for a rider Bethlehem is the middle of the best trail country in the North Country. Our cycling guide has the details.
Bethlehem in the seasons
Summer is the Colonial's and the brewery's season, with concerts and the patio and long evenings on the ridge; the trails are dry and the view is clearest in September. Foliage arrives in the first week of October, a little ahead of Lincoln because of the elevation, and the ridge road through the village is one of the great foliage views in the state, with the whole range in color across the valley. December belongs to the Rocks and its trees. March is sugaring. Bethlehem in mud season is a village of a thousand people waiting for June, which has its own appeal.
Making a day of it: the northern loop
From the lodge, take I-93 north through Franconia Notch to Exit 40 and Route 302 east into the village, about 30 min. The natural loop is Littleton first for breakfast and the candy counter, Bethlehem for the Rocks and the trails in the afternoon, and Franconia and Sugar Hill on the way home by Routes 142, 18 and 117, with the Frost Place and Polly's Pancake Parlor, back down through the notch by dinner. Or reverse it and end in Bethlehem for a film at the Colonial and a beer at Rek-lis, with the 40 min drive home under the stars.
Where to stay
From 191 Pollard Road take I-93 North through the Franconia Notch Parkway to Exit 40, then Route 302 east up the hill into the village, about 30 min. Route 142 from Exit 41 at Littleton climbs to the village from the west, and Route 18 through Franconia is the pretty back way home.
Our guests pair Bethlehem with Littleton on a town day, and with the Rocks in December when the lodge fills for the holidays and the tree farm is the afternoon out. For an evening, the film-and-brewery combination on Main Street is 40 min each way and worth it once a stay.
Useful links
- The Colonial Theatre, Bethlehem
The 1915 theater's history, calendar and tickets. - Rek-lis Brewing Company
Hours, the menu and the music schedule at 2085 Main Street. - The Rocks (Forest Society)
Trails, the Christmas tree farm, maple sugaring and events on the Glessner estate. - Bethlehem Historical Society
The hay-fever resort era and the heritage walking tour. - Bethlehem Trails Association
Trail maps and the connection to the Littleton and Franconia networks. - Our Littleton guide
The next town west, for the first half of a northern day. - Our Franconia and Sugar Hill guide
The loop home past the Frost Place and Polly's. - Our holidays guide
The Rocks' tree farm as a December outing from the lodge.
Sources & official info: bethlehemcolonial.org · forestsociety.org · forestsociety.org · bethlehemhistoricalnh.org · bethlehemtrails.org
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
