news & updates

Architectural Monographs: Moravian Architecture of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

EWP Monographs Moravian 1

A religious sect of Germans known as the Moravians purchased five thousand acres of land in the ‘Forks of Delaware,’ founding their first settlement in Pennsylvania in 1740. Deeply spiritual and devoted to their own community, the Moravians established their own particular variety of colonial architecture as they spread throughout the state, building stunning log cabins and stone cottages.

EWP Monographs Moravian 2

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was named by Count Zinzendorf, the leading bishop of the Moravian church, in honor of the Christmastime completion of the town’s first log cabin. While quite a few of these buildings still survive today, three in particular are noted in Volume XIII, Issue IV of the historic White Pine Monographs: ‘Brother’s House’, ‘Sister’s Home’ and the seminary.

EWP Monographs Moravian 3

These buildings are singled out for being the most exotic, showing “a well-defined architecture of German derivation,” the authors explain. “We are reminded, by the heavy stone and timber construction, the steep roofs with two rows of sloping dormers, and the flanking buttresses, of the medieval buildings of the old world.”

EWP Monographs Moravian 4

Read more about the Moravian architectural legacy in this area of Pennsylvania and see detailed images taken in the 1930s at the White Pine Monograph Library.

RELATED ARTICLES

A Swatch Book of Eastern White Pine Grades

Eastern White Pine Swatch Book This unique informational marketing item takes on ...

A Day in the Life of a Lumber Mill

Check out these videos shot at Limington Lumber in East Baldwin, ...

Colonial Cottages: Eastern White Pine in 17th Century Massachusetts

Built in 1636, the oldest wooden house in America remains in ...