Many houses have small and practical entrance porches. They would have preferred, for instance, to build two-story houses of stone or brick, but stone found in their first years in North Carolina was no match for that of Germany, and the initial scarcity of high-quality lime for mortar limited all-brick construction. Salem’s Moravians used construction techniques they knew well from their previous life in Europe, but New World materials required some rethinking. The land supporting these home workshops was held in trust by the community, which also built separate boarding schools for boys and girls. Married couples were allowed to erect their own homes, which, in light of the Moravians’ task-based belief system, usually included workshops with separate entrances for customers. The unmarried men of the community had both their workshops and their living quarters here until 1823. The showpiece of the Moravian settlement was the large Single Brothers House, built in 1769, with a brick addition in 1786. After the village was established, the structure would house all of Salem’s bachelors-every unmarried man above the age of 14-hence the name “Single Brothers.” Quarters for unmarried women and adolescent girls (“Single Sisters”) would be built a bit later. Except for the church, the Single Brothers House (1768-1769) was the largest and most important of these, since it would provide living and working space for the small band of skilled craftsmen sent from Bethlehem to build the village. The town’s plan, drawn up by Christian Reuter, featured a central square surrounded by community buildings. With Bethabara and Bethania, two smaller Moravian sites nearby, they present an intriguing snapshot of an Old World culture caught in the act of adapting to New World conditions. The buildings range from privately owned houses to churches, schools, shops, and other public buildings, including the museum village of Old Salem. Originally the home of a peaceable religious community, this remarkable National Historic Landmark District holds a collection of authentic, in situ 18th- and 19th-century structures that reflect the Germanic traditions of Salem’s Moravian founders. Hidden in plain sight on the streets of modern-day Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is an architectural time capsule. The log Miksch House was covered in clapboards and painted yellow soon after its construction in 1771 like all early Salem houses, it was roofed in tiles made in the village.
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