Log In

Reset Password
Welcome, User
LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER
Bethlehem Catasauqua East Penn Northampton Northwestern Parkland Salisbury Whitehall-Coplay

Gemeinhaus freshens up for 2021

Published July 06. 2021 02:28PM
by Ed Courrier Special to the Bethlehem Press

The venerable Gemeinhaus got a facelift April 22. Eighty-eight wooden exterior shutters had been removed in January 2021 for repair, restoration and repainting with an historically accurate paint color from the 18th century. They were returned and reinstalled at Bethlehem’s oldest building on Earth Day.

The iron hardware, including shutter dogs, weas restored as well. Also known as shutter catches, these devices hold the shutters in place during windy conditions. Although currently considered decorative, shutters were once necessary for security, lighting control and ventilation.

Built by the Moravians in 1741, the Gemeinhaus, German for “community house,” is considered to be the largest colonial era log structure in continuous use in the United States.

“It was the everything building back in the 18th century when they first came here,” explains Barry Pell, from Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. “It was the first place to worship. They slept in the attic. They ate down on the lower level. All the other rooms were for their industries, crafts and education in this building.”

The white oak logs were stuccoed over in the late 1770s. The wood siding that currently covers the structure dates from the late 1860s. After the Central Moravian Church and other buildings sprang up throughout the community, the Gemeinhaus served as a “Clergy House” and for other residential purposes. It became a museum in the 1960s.

The original log cabin erected by the Moravians, built a few months previous to the construction of the Gemeinhaus, was torn down in the 1820s. The Historic Hotel Bethlehem now occupies the site.

A circa 1866 photograph of the Gemeinhaus depicts the building with louvered shutters on the upper floors and paneled shutters on the lower floor. The same configuration was employed for the reinstallation.

Funded by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s Keystone Historic Preservation Grant, the historically accurate shutter restoration was carried out by R. J. Doerr Co.

Information: www.historicbethlehem.org

PRESS PHOTOS BY ED COURRIER The crew from R. J. Doerr Co. are nearly done reinstalling the refurbished wooden shutters at Gemeinhaus.
Moravian Museum Board President Barry Pell with a circa 1866 photograph of the Gemeinhaus depicting the historical placement of the paneled and louvered shutters.
Newly refurbished shutters stacked against the foundation await installation. The solid panel shutters provide security for the ground floor windows. The louvered ones allow for air circulation on the upper floors.
Adam Cygan carefully hangs a shutter on a second floor window.
Spencer Jacobsen makes sure the shutter dog is holding the newly-hung shutter in place. “We all have a deep appreciation for history,” says Jacobsen of himself and those he works with.
Adam Cygan, touches up paint that had been scratched during transport as his coworker Trevor Ryan dries the wet paint.
On porch, from left, are Barry Pell and LoriAnn Wukitsch, from Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, as they check progress while another load of shutters is loaded into the lift basket.
Two workers are hoisted up by a JLG boom lift with a load of refurbished shutters for installation on the second floor façade of Gemeinhaus.