Located in the town of Bethania, North Carolina, the Bethania Historic District comprises the town’s historic planned core. With its National Historic Landmark District designation, it is a rare example of a Moravian linear farming community in the United States, having been designed and established in 1759.
Even now, the original plan’s land use and traffic patterns can still be seen throughout the community. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2001 and is the largest historic district in Forsyth County, with a total land area of 500 acres.
North Carolina’s Bethania city limits are located on the outskirts of Winston-Salem area in Forsyth County, in the northwestern section of the state. The territory that is now Forsyth County was sold to members of the Moravian Church, who dubbed the place Wachovia after the town in which they lived.
They created a temporary colony at Bethabara in 1753 with the intention of building permanent colonies elsewhere on the tract in the following years. It was founded in 1759 on 2,000 acres of the almost 100,000-acre Wachovia estate, and it was the first permanent settlement built out and formed in America. Bethania was planned by Christian Philip Gottlieb Reuter.
Reuter’s proposal proposed for a compact village community around Muddy Creek, with agricultural regions near the creek and in the uplands above the village, as well as a small lake near the creek. The town was separated into four distinct regions, each of which was subdivided into 24 parcels, which were designated as Residential Lots, Orchard Lots, Bottom Lots, and Upland Lots, in accordance with their geographical positions and intended functions.
Access to these parcels was made possible through the construction of a road network. Throughout the nineteenth century, as the threat of Native American attack receded and more lots were awarded, this fundamental model was refined and expanded even further. A substantial percentage of the community’s original road layout and usage of a significant portion of the community’s original road layout may still be seen in Bethania today.
Main Street, Bethania Road, Bethania-Rural Hall Road, and Loesch’s Lane are the primary through and access routes in the village, with Town Lot Drive providing additional access to the center of the hamlet. Agricultural land is still used for farming on a large number of the agricultural lots, but some have been subdivided into residential subdivisions. It is estimated that several of the buildings bordering Main Street were constructed between the years 1760 and 1770, indicating the town’s early beginnings.
The Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Winston Salem Deck Builders