Moravian Preservation Master Plan.indb - Society for College and ...

Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
The last large elm on Church Street, located at the
northeast corner of Main Hall and visible in a 1964
photograph, was removed in 2007 for safety reasons
(Schamberger 2008, personal communication).
Trees, probably also elms, lined Main Street as well.
A few of these trees are visible in photographs from
as late as 1954 (figure 5-54 and see figure 5-23), though
none remain today.
Figure 5-52. Screen shrubs adjacent to West Hall (JMA 2008).
Missing Historic Vegetation
As a part of the early Moravian settlement, the parcel
contained gardens producing medicinal herbs,
vegetables, and other plants for the sustenance of
the community. Maps dating to 1751 show these
gardens as rectangular plots divided by paths
covering most of the slope. They are depicted in
eighteenth century engravings of the city, as well as
several other illustrations, as lined with white picket
fences (see figures 5-9 and 5-42). The gardens served
in their sustaining capacity in conjunction with the
nearby fruit orchards and farms, as well as the later
citizen gardens on Sand Island. Additionally, the
plot of land where the Widows’ House now stands
is illustrated as a formal parterre garden, featuring
turf beds edged with shrubs with an intervening
network of paths (see figures 5-10 and 5-44). None of
this garden vegetation survives today.
The Moravians’ communal way of life began to
give way to nuclear family living and in the early
nineteenth century, the area between Church Street
and Monocacy Creek began to evolve into the
Pleasure Grounds, a recreational space featuring
both formal and informal tree-lined walking paths
twisting among sloping lawns and specimen trees
such as elms and weeping willows. The few large
lindens that dominate the central space behind the
Single Brethren’s House may be a remnant of the
allée that once lined the path (see figures 5-12, 5-16,
and 5-39), while the sloping lawns of the Pleasure
Grounds are recalled by the turf stretches west of
Peter Hall, south of the Single Brethren’s House,
and south of Clewell Hall (figure 5-53 and see figures
5-35 and 5-46).
As mentioned previously, Church Street has
been planted with street trees since the early
days of Bethlehem. Early engravings show only
representations of trees, but photographs from the
late 1800s show elms and oaks lining the street.
Historic photographs also depict an allée of silver
poplars lining a pedestrian walkway that descended
from the Pleasure Grounds down to the ornamental
fountain, below. There may be remnant trees from
this feature still remaining in the landscape (figure
5-55 and see figure 5-16).
Dense woodland vegetation is depicted in historic
photographs as lining the slope below the college,
but it was much denser then than it is today (see
figures 5-35 and 5-40). It appears that many of these
trees were removed for the construction of the new
residence hall, or were lost to age and disease and
not replaced. Possible remnants of this woodland
include the sycamores, honey locusts, and lindens
behind Main Hall.
Figure 5-53. This sloping lawn behind Clewell Hall recalls the
open quality of the historic landscape (JMA 2008).
Figure 5-54. 1954 aerial photo of Hurd Campus. Street trees are
visible along both South Main Street and West Church Street.
Also visible is the woodland that existed along the slope below
these buildings and the riparian vegetation along Monocacy
Creek (1954 Yearbook).
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 5 • Cultural Landscapes • 89