Nazareth: A Walk through Time

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by Susan M. Dreydoppel

South Main Street

From this corner south on Main Street is a business district that was developed between 1800 and 1875. The west side of the street was a popular place in the early 20th century. The Yeakel Drug Store on the corner of Mauch Chunk and Main included a soda fountain, a perfect place to stop after going to the picture show at the Royal Theater down the street (you can tell which building it was because the marquee is still there). This was before talking pictures, so a piano player provided live music to accompany the action on the screen.

The street is still a business district, including such modern businesses as J & J Graphics and John's Computer Consulting.

In 1780, John Michael Kern built a pottery shop at the south end of Nazareth, where the Nazareth National Bank building is now. A very fine lovefeast mug attributed to him can be found in the Whitefield House museum. In 1820, a home was built on the site. When the bank wanted to build on the site in 1925, rather than demolish the house, they had it moved west to the other side of the parking lot. The 1820 building now houses the Nazareth offices of Lutheran Brotherhood, and the headquarters of the Nazareth National Bank is on the corner.

The original home of Nazareth National was north on Main Street, where Thomas Stumpf Photography is now located. In 1902 they remodeled a building next to their present location (which locals call the bank "annex") and it became the bank building until the present bank was built. Both the bank and the annex are currently used by the bank.

Soon after Center Square was laid out in 1771, there was a building explosion in the first block of what is now South Main Street, by tradesmen who built houses and shops. The Single Brothers' House, a large stone structure where the unmarried men of the community lived and practiced their trades, was built in 1773, along with a log house built by baker Wenzel Bernhardt and another home built by nailsmith Melchior Christ. The next year Dr. Joseph Otto and sexton John Leisher built stone houses. In 1779 brooch maker John Beitel built his house, and the next year John Michael Kern built his pottery. In 1781 blacksmith Jacob Eyerle and gunsmith William Henry built stone shop/dwellings, and silversmith John Dealing built his stone house in 1782.

Over the next 225 years and more, the original buildings were expanded, altered, replaced or disguised by 20th century architectural additions, but underneath a surprising number of buildings on South Main Street one can find remnants of original 18th century structures. The Single Brothers' House was stuccoed in the 19th century, and shop windows, towers and bay windows have been added to the upper floors, but underneath the exterior of Lynn's Florist and Gift Shop and Therassage Therapeutic Massage is the original 1773 building. Part of Dr. Otto's house may remain in the present Rid-Et building, but later owners expanded the building to include what is now Cool Treats Ice Cream Parlor and the Main Street Garden Café. The one-story stone house built by the sexton is almost unrecognizable as the laundromat, although part of the original building remains. The blacksmith's house still looks like an 18th century home, next door to Nazareth Floral Designs (located in a former side yard enclosed in the early 1900s to create shop space), although part of his original house has been absorbed by the Nazareth Army-Navy Store. William Henry's home still exists, underneath the modern facade of the US Newspaper and the Nazareth News Agency (Thomas Stumpf's photo studio was a 19th century addition to the building). John Dealing's home still looks like a Colonial stone home, next door to Dr. Pollyanna Sparrow's office.

The baker's log house was replaced in the late 19th century by the present Nazareth Hardware building. Originally a drug store, it also housed other businesses, including a photography studio. Jacob Christ's hat factory grew into the large brick building which houses Blue Eagle Custom Builders. Melchior Christ's and John Beitel's homes and succeeding buildings were demolished in 1918 to build the original YMCA building and parking lot.

Center Square

Walk up South Main Street to Center Square, and cross into the inside. This part of town was not laid out until 1771, when it was decided that Nazareth should be an actual connected community rather than a collection of smaller residential farms and other buildings. Center Square was surveyed and platted with a compass, with Main Street running north and south and Center Street running east and west. The exact point where the streets intersect, from which the rest of the lots were laid out, can be found under a circular metal cap in front of the cannon.

The inside of "the circle," as Nazareth residents call it, used to be open, with paths crossing the space in a number of directions. In 1791 an open structure, called the "Market Building," was built to house the new (at the time) fire engine and a water tank. Vendors on Market Day would also set up stalls in and around the building. Outdoor farmers' markets are nothing new in this location. The building was no longer needed in 1857, and it was torn down.

The focal point of the circle is now a Parrott gun cannon, a relatively recent addition to the circle in 1906. Army surplus from the Civil War, it was probably never fired, and was acquired by the Hon. G. A. Schneebeli, representative to Congress from Northampton County, and a native of Nazareth. He stipulated that it should honor "the Veterans of Nazareth."

"The tree" in the circle (there are many trees there in actuality, but only one seems to generate questions about it) is a magnificent cutleaf copper beech, brought from England around 1900 and planted in the center of town. Recent droughts have taken their toll, and steps are being taken to prolong its life, which is why that area has been mulched and fenced to keep out pedestrians.

Stand in the middle of the circle, turn and look carefully at the buildings all around. Which would you guess was the first to be built around Center Square? You can eliminate the Post Office, a Works Progress Administration project built in 1935 during the Depression, and the PNC Bank, whose architects did a good job of making a modern building reflect the architecture of the Whitefield House.

The first building begun on Center Square in 1771 was Jacob Christ's home and hat manufactory, which is now the lovely Victorian building on your left as you look at South Main Street from the circle. Jacob Christ used stone as a building material, and the stone is still there, although it was covered with scored stucco sometime in the 19th century. Around 1890, the owner added the frame extension on the left, the tower, Victorian gingerbread, and other architectural features to "modernize" the building, effectively confusing generations of tourists and students. Ersina's Tailoring and The Studio on the Square are the latest of many business tenants in this historic structure.

The grey stucco building to the left of the Christ house was the next building begun on Center Square, a stone structure in 1772 which was the first store in the community of Nazareth. It replaced a small store located about a mile north of Nazareth on the King's Highway. It is now the offices of attorneys Peters, Moritz, Peischl, Zulick & Landes. A second store was built in 1796 across the square, also of stone. Designed by William Henry, the gunsmith who was also trained in architecture, it was built to house a shop on the ground floor and two families upstairs, in response to a complaint in the Moravian records about the lack of low-cost housing in Nazareth. Part of it is still a residence, and Unique Images, a photography shop, occupies the business portion.

The Nazareth Moravian Church and its steeple dominate Center Square today, but it was not built until 1862. The fourth place of worship in Nazareth (the first was a room in the Whitefield House; see the addendum about Nazareth Hall for the other two), it was built to seat almost double the population of Nazareth at the time. The original works of the clock in the belfry were installed in 1798 in the Manor House; they were moved to this church soon after it was built. The clock is still powered by gravity weights, not electricity, and someone winds it weekly. Take a good look at the clock faces: each is five feet in diameter!

The Italianate parsonage next door to the church was completed in 1875; before that the pastor and his family lived in a stone house, which no longer exists, at the corner of West Center and Green Streets.

The brick commercial building which extends around the south side of the circle and down South Main Street has housed a variety of businesses over the past 150 years, from jeweler to art gallery to baker. Currently it is home to Steel Wool: the Blacksmith and the Weaver, Ollie's Travel Service, and FirstStar Savings & Loan.

The northeast corner of Center Square strikingly demonstrates the variety of architectural styles, and the wealth of history, in Nazareth. The stone house on the corner was built in 1820 by Andreas Gottfried Kern, a joiner (furniture-maker), as his family home. Built at a time when Nazareth was still a closed community, but one could nevertheless build and own one's own home and shop, it is one of the few early-19th century homes to survive fairly intact in Nazareth. A residence for the Kern family or tenants until 1975, it became administrative offices for the Nazareth Area School District until 2000, when the Moravian Historical Society purchased it, with considerable support from the community and the school district, to become the Kern Education Center.

Next to this modest early 19th century home stands a striking late 19th century Victorian home, complete with tower, curved windows, and wrap-around porch. Built by a local textile manufacturer, it became the home and office of a local doctor before the Nazareth Area School District purchased it for administrative offices. The law firm of Asteak & DeWalt acquired the building in 2000 and has extensively refurbished it.

As you leave Center Square, be sure to take a look at the black globes that top the cement pillars at each entrance to the circle. They aren't marble, or even painted cement. The thrifty borough fathers took old bowling balls from the Holy Family Club on the west end of Nazareth and attached them to the pillars as decorative elements. If you look carefully, you can even see the finger holes in some of them.

As you head back to the Whitefield House on East Center Street, you are walking past homes from throughout Nazareth's history. Close to Center Square are two stone homes, one with a second door that originally housed a shop, from the late 18th century. The gray double house on your right is a log house and shop from 1790; it was recently sided after years of showing the exposed logs.

Moving east, the age of the buildings gradually decreases, as you walk past 19th and early 20th century homes (and the occasional business, such as The Pie Shop, just north on Spruce Street and Schubert's Bakery, one block north on Broad Street). The Italianate home at the corner of Broad and E. Center Streets dates from the mid-19th century, built by a local brewer. By the time you reach Whitfield Street, the architecture has reach the 20th century on the left, slightly older on the right.

By now, you probably think you've discovered all there is to know about Nazareth, but there's more. There are other neighborhoods of the historic district, the newer sections of town, the Nazareth Speedway and Andretti history, C. F. Martin Guitar Co. Nazareth's rich architectural variety is matched by abundant contributions that the town and its residents have made to local history, fine arts, musical history, commerce and education. But that can wait until your next visit. Come back to Nazareth soon.

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Page 3 : Additional Nazareth Notes

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Susan M. Dreydoppel is Executive Director of the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, and is active in many community organizations. She can frequently be seen guiding people on walking tours around Nazareth.