Moravian Sun Inn

Moravian Sun Inn
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
File:Moravian Sun Inn Oct 11.JPG
Moravian Sun Inn, October 2011
Location	564 Main St., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
Area	less than one acre
Built	1758
NRHP Reference #	73001658
Added to NRHP	October 02, 1973

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, 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.

Gallery

• Sun Inn HABS.jpg

  Original and 1866 elevations

External links

• Sun Inn, 564 Main Street, Bethlehem, Northampton County, PA: 5 measured drawings at Historic American Buildings Survey