In association with the Smithsonian Institution
Historic Places
Walk the streets of Historic Bethlehem and you’ll feel transported to another time and place. Here are some of the historic sites you’ll find. Most are within a short walk of each other.
1750/1761 Smithy
The blacksmith, locksmith, and nailsmith produced ironwork that was essential to everyday life in early America. Opening the doors of this reconstructed workshop brings into view the bellows, forge, anvil, and fire used by Historic Bethlehem’s resident blacksmiths to tell the story of hard work on the colonial frontier.
1810 Goundie House - Welcome Center & Museum Store
John Sebastian Goundie, Bethlehem’s town brewer and community leader, and his family resided in this handsome Federal-style brick home. Imagine them opening their stately front door to escape the dusty, unpaved street with the noise of horses and carriages! Opening the door today reveals rooms furnished to depict family life in the early 1800s. The adjacent Welcome Center offers information to help you make the most of your visit here along with a Museum Store brimming with books and gifts such as redware, fraktur, reproduction handcrafted furniture, colonial-style toys and games and more.
1869 Luckenbach Mill
The Luckenbach Mill was third grist mill constructed at this location. The previous mills were lost in fires. The building currently houses educational programs and administrative offices for Historic Bethlehem.
Burnside Plantation
This historic farm-in-the-city opens doors to early American agricultural life. The property includes a restored 1748/1818 farmhouse, two 1840s bank barns, a high horse-power wheel, large kitchen garden and orchard, a corn crib and wagon shed. James Burnside, Northampton County’s first elected representative to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in Philadelphia, established the farm in 1748. Eventually, the property became part of the Moravians’ agricultural system in Bethlehem and Nazareth, Bethlehem’s sister community nine miles to the north.
Colonial Industrial Quarter
Colonial Moravian technological ingenuity created America’s first industrial park on this site. Opening the doors of these restored buildings reveals how waterpower and humanpower combined to make work easier 260 years ago. Animal hides became leather in the 1761 Tannery while the 1762 Waterworks, now a National Landmark, housed early America’s first pumped town water system.
Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts
This museum is the passionate expression of its founder, local collector Annie S. Kemerer, and her love of beautiful objects. Exquisite Bohemian glass, fine needlework, tall case clocks, dolls, cast-iron toys and landscape paintings are just some of the items exhibited here. Opening this museum’s door transports the visitor to a time when meticulous handwork and artistry were prized in the production of everyday objects used in the home.
Moravian Museum of Bethlehem
The 1741 Gemeinhaus, Bethlehem’s oldest building and a National Historic Landmark, houses a museum that tells the stories of the Moravian founders. Opening the herringbone-patterned doors of this five-story log structure, the largest 18th century log building in the United States, reveals a place which served as home, school, church, and workspace during the community’s earliest days. The museum complex also includes the 1752 Apothecary, or drug store, and the 1758 Nain-Schober House, the only remaining 18th century residence for Christianized American Indians in eastern Pennsylvania, currently undergoing restoration.
