The Whitefield House is a stone building measuring 56 feet long and 35 feet wide. It is named for
George Whitefield (1714–1770), who hired a group of Moravians from Georgia to build the house as a school for orphaned slaves. Only a foundation was built however, after theological disputes between Whitefield and the Moravians caused the group to purchase the town of
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was here they established a Moravian community. When Whitefield went bankrupt, the Moravians purchased 5000 acres of land from him, which would later become the town of Nazareth. They completed the Whitefield House in 1743, just in time for it to be used as a home for 32 couples coming over from England. The house has been in Moravian hands for years, and has operated as a place of worship, boarding school, place for
mission work, nursery, the
Moravian Theological Seminary, and apartments for furloughed missionaries. Currently, the Moravian Historical Society uses the building as its historical museum, administrative offices, and gift shop.
French and Indian War Whitefield House was briefly fortified with a
stockade and
sentry boxes from 1756 to 1758, to protect people fleeing from the
Gnadenhütten massacre and the
Northampton massacre in late 1755. By January 29, 1756, 253 refugees were living at Whitefield, including a number of
Lenape Moravian converts. The stockade was 236 feet long by 170 feet wide, and 10 feet high, and protected two log houses and a cattle yard as well as Whitefield House. Sentry boxes at the gate were built of fire-resistant green logs chinked with clay. Construction began in February 1756 and was completed in May. Captain Isaac Wayne and a company of soldiers were briefly posted in Nazareth, but after the stockade was built, local settlers and the Moravian Indians kept watch. The so-called "Nazareth stockade" was probably dismantled after hostilities ended following the
Treaty of Easton in October 1758. == 1740 Gray Cottage ==