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.
Up until its closing in the 1950s, the 1752 Apothecary was the oldest continually operated apothecary in the United States. It is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and is part of the Moravian Church transcontinental settlement listed 26th on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States.
After Dr. John Adolf Meyer from Saxony, Germany, graduated from medical school, he joined the Moravian settlement in Hernhut, Germany, and in 1736, he became a clergyman. In 1742, he moved to the Moravian settlement in Bethlehem. In 1742, John Friedrich Otto also left Germany to establish himself as a doctor in Bethlehem. He too was a Moravian and a clergyman. Dr. Otto also had a strong interest in medical herbs and greatly expanded the pharmacy that Dr. Meyers had created. It came to be known as Dr. Otto's Closet.
In 1747, Moravians planted an herb garden to provide medicinal herbs for the apothecary. Meyer relocated to Nazareth to run a school, and then to the Moravian settlement in Lititz, where he lived until his death in 1787. In 1750, John Friedrich Otto was also transferred to Lititz and was named the resident physician of Nazareth until his death in 1779.
In 1750, John Friedrich Otto's brother, John Matthew Otto, also a doctor and practicing Moravian, arrived in Bethlehem. He would remain a lifelong resident and physician in Bethlehem for 36 years. One thing that made John Matthew Otto unique was that he was a physician, surgeon, chemist and pharmacist. One of his greatest accomplishments was the introduction of inoculation to control an epidemic of smallpox.
The apothecary was briefly moved to the Bell House before a laboratory was erected in 1752. It was a one story stone building with a red tiled roof laboratory that was built on what is now Main Street. In 1764, a second story was added. But in 1862, as the commercial district in Bethlehem was growing, the building was razed to make way for a larger storefront.
The apothecary supplied medicines, not only for Bethlehem, but also for the surrounding areas. It developed into one of the most successful enterprises for the church and Dr. John Matthew Otto became known throughout the Moravian community and the surrounding areas as The Doctor.
In 1952, the apothecary closed its doors for good and it became a museum. In 1955, the 1752 Apothecary moved to its current location at 418 Main Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Many of the tools used to create the compounds are preserved and on display in a small area behind the Moravian bookshop in Bethlehem. The original hearth and floor was completely saved and restored. It sits on the left side of the room with many of the different pots and pans used to create the medicinal compounds still intact. Original apothecary jars line the shelves, many with compounds still inside, as well as simple tools used in making and measuring pills.
To learn more about the 1752 Apothecary visit, historicbethlehem.org.
Information for this podcast has been provided from Richard E Myers' book, Sketches of Early Bethlehem, Dr. Charles A. Waltman's book 18th Century Bethlehem Medical Practices, the Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, and a special thank you to Thomas McCullough, the Assistant Archivist of the Moravian Church, Northern Province.
