Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
The Burnside Plantation, located at 1461 Schoenersville Road along the Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was the first privately owned property within the Moravian settlement of Bethlehem. James Burnside, originally from County Meath, Ireland, traveled to Georgia. Following two devastating fires and the death of his first wife, he turned to the local Moravians for solace, James and his six year old daughter Rebecca would take off for the North.
Not long after, James befriended Mary Wendover, a Moravian widow from the Moravian congregation in New York. James and Wendy became Moravian missionaries and married in 1741. Unfortunately, in 1746, his daughter Rebecca died from smallpox.
Not long after relocating to Bethlehem in 1747, James and Mary Burnside asked permission from the Moravian Church to live as a couple and not communally. The Burnsides were granted the request and purchased 500 acres just north of the Moravian settlement of Bethlehem. The land purchase came to be known as the Burnside Plantation.
A Moravian plantation was a working farm that produced crops for the entire community. We know that these farms were very different from the plantations in the southern United States. At the Burnside Plantation, they farmed wheat, corn, buckwheat and turnips. The Burnside home was initially called Little Cot. It was a two story, three bay house, built of field stone and featured brick arches over the windows, a sloping roof and herringbone pattern doors. A summer kitchen was later added so the heat of cooking would not warm the farmhouse during the summer months.
In 1751, the Burnsides sold 200 acres of the farm to the Moravian Church. In 1752, James Burnside was elected as the first representative to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly for the newly created Northampton County. He served on the Committee of Indian Affairs with Benjamin Franklin.
In 1755, James Burnside died. After his death, Mary Burnside sold off the remains of the plantation to the Moravian Church in 1758. By 1760, the farm became home to two preeminent Moravian organ builders, Johan Gottlob Klemm and David Tannenberg. In 1765, the Hillman family leased a large portion of the Burnside Plantation, including the standing structures. In the 1800s, they petitioned the Moravian leaders to enlarge the house to accommodate their family.
From 1841 to 1842, the farm began a transformation from hand power to horsepower. A new barn and a high horse powered wheel was built. Today, the high horse powered wheel at the Burnside Plantation is one of only a handful remaining in the United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1986, 6.5 acres of the original Burnside Plantation was purchased by the Lehigh County Park System for its historical significance. In the 1990s, the Historic Bethlehem Partnership, which later became the Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, leased the plantation to restore, develop, preserve and manage the site as a living museum.
To learn more about the Burnside Plantation, visit historicbethlehem.org. Information for this episode was provided by the Historical Marker Database and the Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites.
