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Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
church authorities in Herrnhut. The town plan
incorporated the old north-south Native American
trail leading north from Philadelphia to the Lehigh
River ford, and then crossing the Monocacy
peninsula through the town toward Nazareth.
This became the primary travel route through the
town and was the predecessor of present-day Main
Street. Intersecting this road on the east were two
east-west streets set parallel to one another. The
Figure 3-4. Engraving of Klein Welke, 1756 town plan (Murtagh
1967:8).
Figure 3-5. Plan of Nazareth, 1771 town plan (Murtagh 1967:20).
southern of these two streets, Sisters’ Lane (now
West Church Street), was where the first buildings,
including the Gemeinhaus and most of the choir
buildings, were built. The northern of the two
streets was called the Ladengasse and contained the
community store, cemetery, and a few individual
dwellings. The north end of the town contained
the farm buildings. The Platz, or town square, was
located at what is now the intersection of Main and
West Church Street and extended north almost
to the Ladengasse. It was bounded on the south
by the Single Brethren’s House, on the west by
the Monocacy Creek industrial area, on the north
by the farm barns and stables, and on the east
by the doctor’s house, laboratory, and children’s
house. Agricultural fields were cleared around the
settlement, orchards were planted along the eastern
side of the town center, and a small complex of
buildings for use by the Native Americans was
constructed across Monocacy Creek (Levering
1903:258; Murtagh 1967:12-13).
The early buildings housed church members
grouped in the Moravian choir system, as established
at Herrnhut. The growing group of buildings
contained the domestic and worship spaces of the
community. Building uses were fluid and changed
frequently as the community grew. Initially, the
Gemeinhaus housed the different groups in sets of
rooms or larger dormitories. As the population
grew, the single women’s and widows’ choirs lived
in Nazareth due to lack of space to house them
in Bethlehem. Later, multiple large houses were
constructed for single men (brothers), single women
(sisters), widows, and married couples. Each choir
shared household responsibilities and common
worship. The first buildings were constructed on
the north side of Church Street (originally Sisters’
Lane), east of what became Main Street (Murtagh
1967:12; Smaby 1988:92-93).
Garden spaces were an important component of
the new town of Bethlehem. The common gardens
were created to grow the vegetables consumed by
members of the congregation. While fields and
orchards lay somewhat more distant, the gardens
were adjacent to the buildings and close to the
town core. Historic maps and plans indicate that
gardens for the choir houses covered most of the
hill descending from Church Street toward the
south, and the sites of the Single Brethren’s House
and Widows’ House were garden space prior to
their construction. The southern exposure of this
slope undoubtedly played a role in its selection
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 3 • College Context • 37