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.
In the mid-eighteenth century, it was rare to find a community in which women were not only included, but were respected leaders. At the Single Sisters’ Home, where a group of unmarried Moravian women and older girls lived and worked together in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - this was the norm.
Prior to the Moravians' arrival in Bethlehem in 1741, leaders declared, “In Bethlehem there should never be a Single Sisters house,” as they did not believe that women would be able to do well in America without marriage. Much to their surprise, the Single Sisters community in Bethlehem grew to a substantial size, forcing the establishment of a Single Sisters’ Choir. Moravian choirs were groups of people organized by age, gender, and marital status who lived together and cared for one another.
The Single Sisters’ Choir included women of German, British, Native American, Dutch, French, Scandinavian, and African ancestry. Sisters from every background worshiped, ate, and worked together.
On November 15, 1748, the Single Sisters’ Choir moved into the Single Sisters’ House. Formally the home of the Bethlehem Single Brethren’s Choir, the house was built in 1744 in the German-Colonial style. The house consisted of dormitories, a chapel, a kitchen, and multiple other work rooms. These work rooms, referred to as Stuben, each housed the work of 6-10 women assigned by occupation—spinners were in one room, while dressmakers and weavers were in others.
The Moravians lived in a communal economic system in which work and income were pooled together. Even after the dissolution of the communal economy in 1762, the members of the Single Sisters’ Choir in Bethlehem were economically independent.
Another alluring factor of the community was the opportunity for leadership for women. Due to the strict separation of the sexes, all the leaders of the Single Sisters’ Choirs in the Moravian Church were women.
Many members of the Single Sisters’ Choir wrote that it was the inspiring religious spirit that they found in Bethlehem which drew them there.
Many of the members of the Single Sisters’ Choir ultimately chose not to marry at all, as married life did not seem more desirable than their life in the Choir.
The celebration of female independence, leadership, and companionship led to the success of the Bethlehem Single Sisters’ Choir, which persisted until the middle of the nineteenth century, making it the longest lasting choir in the community.
Even after the choir was disbanded, the Single Sisters’ Home continued to house unmarried and widowed Moravian women until 2007.
The Single Sisters’ House remains at 50 West Church Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This World Heritage Site is open to visitors who want to learn more about this remarkable site of female history.
Information for this episode was provided by the websites: HistoricBethlehem.org the MoravianArchives. org, ExplorePAHistorty.org and from The Morning Call’s article -the “Single Sisters’ House to open its doors at the City’s second-oldest Moravian site to let public in for first time” and the article, “Forming the Single Sisters’ Choir in Bethlehem" by Beverly Prior Smaby at jstor.org.
We want to give a special thanks to Jordan Knox, an undergraduate student studying English and Environmental Studies at Lehigh University for her writing contribution for this episode.
