I live within biking distance of the eighteenth-century Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (26 miles, round trip) and visit there several times a year. I'm almost as close to another eighteenth-century Moravian settlement in Hope, but there are too many hills between us, so I don't get there as often. At least seven Moravian congregations were founded in New Jersey before 1900, most of them in south Jersey. Only three remain active—Egg Harbor City, Riverside and Palmyra—although early churches survive in Hope and Swedesboro as well. This issue will explore something of the history of those communities.

A very brief history of the Moravian Church
The name Moravian identifies the fact that this historic Church had its origin in ancient Bohemia and Moravia in what is the present-day Czech Republic. The foremost of Czech reformers, John Hus (1369-1415) was a professor of philosophy and rector of the University in Prague., and the Bethlehem Chapel there, where Hus preached, became a rallying place for the Czech reformation. Gaining support from students and the common people, he led a protest movement against many practices of the Roman Catholic clergy and hierarchy. Hus was accused of heresy, underwent a long trial, and was burned at the stake in 1415.
     The reformation spirit did not die with John Hus. The Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren), as it has been officially known since 1457, arose as followers of Hus organized the church. This was sixty years before Martin Luther began his reformation and a hundred years before Henry VIII established the Church of England. Before 1722 the Moravian Church was primarily Czech, centered in the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. After 1722, the Moravians became heavily Germanized. By the time they arrived in American in 1735, they had members from Germany, England, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and many other European countries. Even though they were an international multicultural church, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the official language of the Moravian Church was German.
      The Moravians are one of the few cases where a religious group did not come to America for religious freedom; they came to America as part of an international mission movement to provide a church for German speakers in America and to convert American Indians to Christianity. From the eighteenth century until the 1850s the Moravians had five Moravian-only communities in America. The church was both the religious leader and municipal government in these communities.After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Moravian settlement in Georgia in 1735, the Moravians settled in Pennsylvania on the estate of George Whitefield, who soon kicked them out. Moravian settlers purchased five hundred acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741 and later bought five thousand acres in Nazareth from Whitefield's manager, and the two communities of Bethlehem and Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural and industrial economy. Other settlement congregations were established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. All were considered frontier centers for the spread of the gospel, particularly in its mission to the Native Americans.

Bethlehem (Pennsylvania)
Bethlehem was a planned community, perhaps one of the earliest in the country, and it was communitarian, but not a utopian society like the Shakers. Members donated all of the labor to the community, and ceded their right to choose occupations and marriage partners. They lived in communal dorms such as the Single Brothers Residence (left), ate in shared dining rooms and wore clothes made in communal shops. This was not part of their religious doctrines, but simply a matter of economic necessity. The tightly-knit community followed a detailed plan of worship and a near constant celebration of rituals.

Earliest settlement in New Jersey
According to one history of Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, "the considerable trouble from Moravian dissenters caused a division in the congregation and the establishment of the Zion Moravian Church of Oldman's Creek, south of Swedesboro, in 1743. In 17__ they erected a log church and within a score of years the membership became so great by 1768 they gained formal recognition. The existing brick church was begun in the following spring. Within a few years (1793 to 1798), the membership decreased, probably due to the fact that the Moravians persisted in holding the services in German. There was difficulty retaining a preacher, and in 1807, the Methodists were allowed to worship there. They were eventually evicted (rowdyness and debauchery was the excuse, it appears) and built the Pilesgrove Methodist Church a short distance away. In 1834 the Episcopalians asked for the use of the building, and it was granted to them. In 1836 the church and rectory were deeded to the Protestant Episcopal Church of New Jersey, and is presently owned by the Gloucester County Historical Society. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a trim symmetrical brick building (Flemish bond, with a belt course between the first and second stories) , with minimal decorative elements, and two front doors on the long side, in the manner of the Quaker meetinghouses; the interior is a traditional Protestant arrangement, however. Extensive plans are available at the Historic American Buildings website. It is listed on the National Register.

Maurice River (Cumberland)
About 1745 a Moravian settlement in Maurice River erected a church about a mile above Port Elizabeth. They were probably of Swedish descent and may have had a connection with the Swedish Lutheran churches at Penns Neck and Raccoon (Swedesboro), although the minister there, Nicholas Collin, treated Moravians as serious rivals and made disparaging remarks aboue them, as he did of Dissenters in general. There are records to about 1770 but little is known beyond that date. Reportedly, only remnants of the stone foundation remain. The site is surrounded by private property so I have not visited it.

Hope (Warren)
Hope Township is one of the earliest planned communities in the United States, having been established by Moravians in 1769. Several early planning maps detail streets, homes, wells, businesses, farms, a school, tavern and church. Prior to the arrival of the Moravians, there was no distinct town, but several families farmed on Jenny Jump Mountain, to the south of Hope. The Moravians pursued industrial skills and crafts rather then solely farming and believed the area would grow with surrounding farms and residents who would need to purchase goods produced in Hope. Recognizing the need for immediate income to develop the Community, the first industrial building built was the Grist Mill and its Mill Race, which diverted a channel of water to the Mill to run the grinding wheels to grind flour. This was accomplished in one year and began immediate production, which continued into the 1950’s. This industry was soon followed by the distillery, general store, tavern, a saw mill, linseed oil mill, pottery, tannery, the single sister’s residence and a school and church—the Gemeinhaus. Throughout the 1760s, Moravians from Bethlehem traveled through this area on their way to New England to establish new communities. After a formal survey of the village completed in 1774, the community was officially accepted by the Moravian Church and the name was changed from Greenland to Hope.
     After almost 40 years of the Moravian “experiment” in Hope, the community was sold and almost all of the Moravians returned to Bethlehem or Nazareth. The basic reason for closing the community was that it was never self-supporting and had declined from its height of population of 147 to under 100 people by the early 19th century. The Church in Germany could no longer subsidize such a small village. Disease and a competitive gristmill may also have contributed to Hope's decline as a Moravian business.
      The Gemeinhaus (the spiritual center of the Moravian community) was erected in 1781. There was certainly an earlier church of some sort. : there is no equivalent else in the state, although there are at least two other Moravian churches in New Jersey. Although long-since converted into commercial purposes, this solid stone structure was erected in 1781. Religious services were held on the second floor, and many original details in doors, fireplaces and cornices have been preserved. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, the Moravians sold off all their property in the town and moved backed to Bethlehem.
     The building now houses a bank, which is responsible for the fine job of restoration and preservation; it long served as the county courthouse, a hotel and tavern.

Riverside (Burlington)
Woodward & Hageman's 1884 History of Burlington County includes this note about a Moravian church in Riverside: “The congregation and membership are composed entirely of foreigners, scarcely any of whom can speak English.” They had a small brick building, erected in 1868. That has not survived. There is a twentieth-century successor church in Riverside at Bridgeboro and Washington Streets, but their website contains no history of the congregation or its buildings.

Egg Harbor City (Atlantic)
A full classical portico on a church is relatively uncommon in New Jersey— there are probably less than two dozen among the surviving 18th and 19th century churches. In any case, it was a later addition, maybe added in 1880, as an early postcard shows a very traditional meetinghouse-style building, erected in 1860. Close attention to the rooflines show the original building to the rear of the portico.
  Late historian Bob Peterson of Egg Harbor City provides this account: When Egg Harbor was founded in 1855, church services were held in the Excursion Hall, an all-purpose community center, and in private homes. The first minister in town was Ulrich Gunther, a member of the Reformed Church, who tried to minister to each and every one in spiritual need. The Egg Harbor people then applied to the boards of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches for regular preachers, but their pleadings produced no action. Reverend Gunther then suggested that they apply to the Home Mission Board of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem. The Board explored the situation and in March 1859 sent the first regular preacher to Egg Harbor, Reverend Christian Israel, who organized a Moravian congregation of 66 communicants and 63 children. The Gloucester Farm and Town Association, which had planned Egg Harbor from its Philadelphia offices, promosed to donate five city lots to any church if the building could be erected in one year. Their goal, of course was simply to attract more people to Egg Harbor. The Moravians aggressively accepted the offer, and beat all the other denominations by building the church in record time. They dedicated it on Palm Sunday, 1861. [Special thanks to Barry Caselli for that note.]

Palmyra (Burlington)
Church history says that a Moravian missionary from Philadelphia identified a group of believers in the Palmyra area who had no organized church.Regular services began about 1852, a Sunday school was started and meetings is farmhouses were so well attended that land for a church was purchased in 1860. Two years later the first church was erected. The current building dates to 1902 (depending on what rebuilding in the church's cornerstone means), and may incorporate large sections of the original. The building has some nice late nineteenth century stained glass windows.

Recent Book: A Brief History of the Religious Architecture of New Jersey 1703-1900 has recently been published and is available at Amazon. It is loaded with full-color illustrations representing the significant architectural designs in the state. It is authoritative but not scholarly in style, and was written for the average reader with an interest in the old meetinghouses, churches and synagogues of the state. Here's a direct link to its page on Amazon. You can find out more about it at the Wooden Nail Press website.

Steeple Envy is the title of my current work in process—the history of the churchscape of Morris County, and I expect it will be available during the third quarter of 2011, probably to be issued together with the work on Essex County, tentatively titled A Mighty Architectural Shout. Together the two total more than 800 pages, and the research is going more slowly than anticipated, mainly because I'm trying to finish the books on Burlington, Cumberland and Salem.