Colonial Industrial Quarter
1741 - 1800
“They have carried the mechanical Arts to greater Perfection here than in any Place which I have seen.”
John Adams to Abigail Adams
April, 1777
Early Industrial History
By 1745, only four years after they founded Bethlehem (1741), the Moravians, a modern Protestant religious group from Germany, had established 35 different crafts, trades, and industries in their community. Many of these industries were located here along the Monocacy Creek, an area now called the Colonial Industrial Quarter.
Waterpower Proves Essential
Moravian craftsmen used the power of the Monocacy Creek to turn waterwheels that moved equipment to grind grain, pump water, full cloth, press flax seeds, grind bark, and soften hemp. These industries were important because they helped make early Bethlehem a nearly self-sufficient community and enabled the Moravians to support their extensive missionary activities. Productivity here reached its peak between the 1770s and 1800.
Marker is at the intersection of Main Street and Old York Road, on the left when traveling north on Main Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
