Area less than one acre NRHP Reference # 73001658 Added to NRHP 2 October 1973 | Built 1758 (1758) Opened 1758 | |
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Location 564 Main St., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Similar Sun Inn Preservation Associati, Goundie House, Lewis David de Schweinit, Colonial Industrial Quarter, Museum of Indian Culture | ||
The Moravian Sun Inn was an 18th-century inn built by the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to provide accommodations for non-Moravian merchants who had business with the community. Many people prominent during the American Revolution stayed there, including George Washington, Martha Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the Marquis de Lafayette. On September 22, 1777 fourteen members of the Continental Congress signed the register and stayed overnight.
The original inn was built in 1758, as a 66-by-40-foot (20 by 12 m), two-story stone building with a mansard roof. In 1826 a third story was added with 17 new rooms. In 1866 the building was again enlarged, almost completely hiding the original inn. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
After Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine much of the American army's baggage and stores were kept near the inn and many people fleeing Philadelphia stayed at the inn. During Fries's Rebellion in 1799 seventeen of Fries's followers were held at the inn and then freed by Fries.