Morning Call: Bethlehem’s oldest building gets a face-lift

The oldest building in Bethlehem is getting a face-lift.

The 1741 Gemeinhaus, home of the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, is being beautified with the restoration of its exterior shutters, which were made with handwrought hardware, at 66 W. Church St., according to a news release.

The old shutters were removed in January to make way for the installation of the restored, historically accurate shutters at 10 a.m. Thursday (Earth Day).

A total of 88 shutters have been refurbished and painted with the historically accurate paint color dating to 1741 in preparation for Historic Moravian Bethlehem’s potential nomination to become a World Heritage Site, the news release states.

The Gemeinhaus, now maintained by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, has gone through a series of exterior appearance changes, from oak log construction to stucco over the logs to the wood siding that the building has today.

The oldest known photograph of the structure, taken in 1866, shows the building with louvered shutters on the upper floors and paneled shutters on the lower floor. This configuration remains today.

The restoration project, funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, became necessary as the weather took a toll on the wooden structures and the wood began to rot, according to the release.

R.J. Doerr Company, a historical preservation contractor approved by the state, handled the removal, restoration and reinstallation of the shutters using a high-lift truck and ladders.

Repairs to the shutter dog or shutter catch, the device that keeps the shutters open against the walls, also were made to safely hold the shutters in place during windy conditions.

“Shutters, once functional for security, lighting control, and air movement in the building, are now seen by many as just decorative,” the release states. “They are of increased importance for buildings with historical significance as they provide context and accurate appearance.”

The 1741 Gemeinhaus, or community house, was built of white oak timbers in the German colonial style. It was constructed in two stages with the center and western portions begun in 1741 and the eastern section begun in 1742 and completed in 1743.

It is believed to be the largest 18th-century log structure in continuous use in the United States. Moravian settlers lived, ate, slept, worshipped, conducted meetings and welcomed visitors in this building in the early years while they built the other buildings in what is now the first National Register Historic District in Pennsylvania.

The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in the 1970s, as the birthplace and residence of Lewis David von Schweinitz, the father of American mycology.

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