Historical Sites and Monuments

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The Rose Inn

This stone marker indicates the site of the Moravian inn located between Nazareth and Schoeneck. Der neue Gasthof (The New Inn) was opened on September 15, 1752, with John Frederick and Divert Mary Schaub as its first inn-keepers.

It was originally intended to quarter the men expected to build the planned village of Gnadenstadt (eventually Schoeneck), as well as accommodate travelers using the Minnisink Road. The completed structure contained seven rooms plus a kitchen and a cellar. It sat on a 160 acre tract, bordered by Nazareth to the south.

In 1754, a sign was erected on the inn which incorporated a full-blown scarlet rose, and from that point it was referred to as Der Gasthof zur Rose (The Rose Inn). The name memorialized the token of allegiance demanded by the Penn family of those who purchased land from them. According to the deed of 1731, one red rose was to be paid on-demand annually on the 24th of June. There is no record of the Penn family ever requesting "payment" for the 5,000 acre tract known as the Barony of Nazareth.

During the Winter of 1755-56, The Rose Inn exchanged the character of an inn for that of a city of refuge. Its location on the Minnisink Road made it the first public building the refugees fleeing south from Dansbury and the rest of the frontier came upon. Some stayed, others headed to Nazareth or Bethlehem. It was also used as a camp by men heading north to combat the Indians.

In 1763, a store was opened to the south of The Rose Inn. Moravian Indians traveled from as far away as Wyalusing to trade their wares.

The property was sold to private parties in 1771, and closed its doors to the public in 1772. It was at this time that Governor Richard Penn spent a week as a guest of the new owners.

The property changed hands many times over the following years, and in 1858 The Rose Inn was demolished. Some of the wooden boards that survived the demolition were used to build the barn that still stands today across the street from the stone marker.

Click here for a map to the Rose Inn

For more information, please read:

• Jones, Maurice C., A Red Rose from the Olden Time, 1872
• Moravian Historical Society, Transactions, Vol. II, (1886)
• Levering, Joseph Mortimer, A History of Bethlehem Pennsylvania, 1903