Zinzendorf's Baronial Manor

not a bad job when you consider there was no Home Depot!

The Barony of the Rose, as Nazareth is sometimes called, was not a pretty metaphor. At one time, this area was planned to be the only barony in the New World.

Many don't know the circumstances of the building of Zinzendorf Manor or Moravian Hall, half a block off the circle on Center Street. It was the first building in the section that came to be central Nazareth, erected in 1755-56 on land that had been primeval forest before construction began. It was a tremendous work for a small community living on what at that time was the frontier. When it was finished it was for a while the largest single-family private residence in the colonies and people came to Nazareth just to see it.

A building the Manor may have been modeled after

Why put all that work into it when life was so close to subsistence level? Count Zinzendorf, leader and benefactor of the Unitas Fratrum, later to be known as the Moravian Church, had been exiled from Saxony where his home was, because of the group's unusual ideas and living arrangements. This building, copy of one of his former homes, was to be his baronial manor, as approved by William Penn's descendants. Sadly for the Nazareth residents who worked so hard and loved him so much, Zinzendorf's exile from Saxony was repealed and he never again came to Nazareth or set eyes on the lordly manor built especially for him.

The structure eventually became a school for boys, known as Nazareth Hall and is now a multi-unit residence. We'll discuss Zinzendorf and his weird connections another day!