Bethabara, North Carolina
Bethabara (from the
Hebrew, meaning "House of Passage" and pronounced beth-ab-ba-ra) is a village located in
Forsyth County,
North Carolina. It was the site where fifteen men from the
Moravian church first settled in
1753 in an abandoned cabin in the hundred-thousand acre tract of land the church had purchased from
Lord Granville and dubbed
Wachovia.
Although later parties of Moravians joined the first fifteen, including women and children, Bethabara, as its name implies, was never meant to be a permenent settlement. It was intended to house the Moravians until a more suitable location for their central village could be found. In
1771, that place was completed and named Salem. Many of the settlers moved to Salem, and Bethabara became an outlying farm to supply the residents of Salem and other Moravian villages with food.
In
1788, a
slave, Johann Samuel, was named superintendent of the farm; he was freed in
1801, though he continued to rent the land from the church. However, Bethabara as it existed was no longer needed, and it fell into disuse. The original buildings collapsed, and their foundations were filled in to make more farm land.
Today, what remains of the village, including the excavated foundations of the original buildings, the restored
Gemeinhaus, and the reconstructed
pallisade and colonial gardens is a park and
National Historic Site serving Forsyth County. All of the above can be toured for a small fee in the spring, summer, and autumn months. There are frequent festivals and reenactments on the weekends, such as the Independence Weekend Celebration held the weekend prior to or during
Independence Day.
Winston-Salem State University also runs a summer
archeology program featuring on-site excavation.
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Historic Bethabara Park
