File:Single Sisters’ House, Church Street, Bethlehem, PA - 52410213670.jpg

English: Built in 1744 as the first Bretheren’s House, this stone building was constructed by the Moravian settlers of Bethlehem to house single women. The building has two wings, the northern wing was constructed in 1752, connecting it to the adjacent Bell House, and housed a dining hall and a small chapel, and saw the addition of tapered stone buttresses on the side facade. The building saw another addition in 1772 to the west, which housed a new dining area and kitchen, as well as additional dormitory space. The original section of the building features a gambrel roof, rusticated fieldstone exterior, brick arches over the six-over-six double-hung windows, a centrally located doorway on the first floor of the front facade, shed and gabled dormers, and stone sills. The rear addition features a partial gambrel roof, buttresses, a double door with a transom into the courtyard framed by the Bell House and Gemein House, and similar exterior details to the adjacent Bell House and Single Sisters’ House. The 1772 addition features a side gable roof, and otherwise similar exterior details to the original buildings. The building became home to a museum documenting the early Moravian history of Bethlehem in 1939, later moving to the Gemein House in 1966, with the majority of the building remaining in use as apartments for single women in the Moravian religious community until 2007. The building, with the exception of the 1772 addition, which presently is a private residence, is part of the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem. The building is a contributing structure in the Central Bethlehem Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and expanded to include additional buildings in 1988, and a contributing structure in the Historic Moravian Bethlehem District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark in 2012.