2025 marks 280 years since the Crown Inn was built in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Originally, the Crown Inn was called the Public House and then the Tavern Over Ye Water.
When the Moravians began building Bethlehem in 1741, there were few travelers. But as the settlement took hold and the population grew, new roads were opened and Bethlehem became a crossroads town. In 1743, a ferry service over the Lehigh River connected Bethlehem between what today is known as the North Side and the South Side.
In the early days of the Moravian settlement in Bethlehem, non-Moravians were not allowed to spend the night in the community. So, in 1745, an inn was built along the south side of the Lehigh River. The first public house innkeeper was Samuel Powell. Along with his wife Martha, they entertained over 200 visitors during the first eight months of opening their doors.
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, Benjamin Franklin arrived in Bethlehem with members of the provincial commission and a party of 50 men to investigate troubles with the Native Americans. Before continuing on to Easton, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin ate at the Crown Inn. On January 7, 1756, Franklin returned to Bethlehem with his troops for a longer stay at the Crown Inn to aid the community in creating its defenses in case of an attack.
When the war ended in 1759, the Moravian leaders of Bethlehem decided that the city needed a larger, more comfortable inn. Plans were finalized for the Sun Inn to be erected in Downtown Bethlehem on the north side. The Sun Inn opened to the public on September 25, 1760, and immediately drained businesses from the little Public House across the river. As an advertising ploy, the proprietors of the old inn decided that they needed to find a distinctive name for it. For favors granted by the British forces, they called the inn Dein Crown — The Crown — and emblazoned the sign with the crown. The name became official in 1762.
Travel between Philadelphia and Bethlehem grew beyond expectations. Not only was the Sun Inn enormously successful, but also the ferry was swamped with passengers, so a bridge was proposed to give some relief. A committee was formed to study the proposal. Two members were Valentin Fuhrer, who would become the last known owner of the Crown Inn, and Mossa Warner, the ferryman. Understandably, they were opposed to the project. A bridge would put them out of work. Others sympathized with them. However, when the committee members were out of town, a test vote was taken in Bethlehem. Almost every voter approved of the project. The bridge was authorized on April 3, 1792 and completed on September 28, 1794.
The same year, the Crown Inn closed and the ferry was abandoned. Both Fuhrer and Warner became toll takers on the bridge. Valentin Fuhrer took over the Crown Inn as his home and died there. In 1857, the house was razed to make way for the North Pennsylvania Railroad. Today, a historic marker remembering the Crown Inn sits on Riverside Drive in front of the old Union Railroad Station building in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
A special thanks goes out to Kenneth F Rainier with the South Side Bethlehem Historic Society, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, National Canal Museum, and historian Frank Whalen.
