Artist/Maker

Unknown

Place Made

Date Made

1798-1800

Medium

ink on paper

Dimensions

Actual Plan page HOA 8-1/16″; WOA 9-7/8″
Framed: HOA 12; WOA 13 3/4; DOA 1 1/4

Accession Number

5319

Description

A manuscript map of the Moravian community of Salem, North Carolina. In 1753 the Moravians in Great Britain had purchased nearly 100,000 acres from one of the lord proprietors of the Carolinas, Earl Granville. They named the tract ‘Wachovia’. The first small settlement was at Bethabara in 1753, settled by colonists from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethania followed in 1759, Hope in 1763, and then in 1766 work began on the main community at Salem, planned as the administrative center of Wachovia. The meeting house at Salem was consecrated in 1771, schools were founded, and the congregation flourished.

The plan shows the town as it appeared at the turn of the nineteenth century. It shows two main streets (one running ‘nach Bethabara’ to the northeast and ‘zur Wach’ to the southeast, the other ‘nach Hope’ to the southwest), a main ‘Square’ where these roads cross, some narrower side streets, a cemetery (‘Gottes Acker’), and forty buildings identified in German in a numbered key. No. 26, for example, is ‘Store Bagge’ on the ‘Square’; There is also a lake at the confluence of three streams, and a directional compass pointer.

Buildings and particular areas of note on the plan are shaded and numbered. The numbers correspond with the numbers and location names below the drawing. The translated text reads:
1 & 2 = The Smith Schulz
3 = Pottery Christ
4 = unoccupied hut
5 = Sadler Holder
6 = Old gemein vorsteher house stoz
7 = dokt Vierling
8 = Bookkeeper Meinung
9 = Kohler
10 = new Vorsteh(er)
11 = Hatmaker Reiz
12 = Cooler [Pfohl]
13 = Tobacco shopkeeper Miksch
14 = Carpenter/joiner Wohlfahrt
15 = Tribel
16 = School establishment
17 = Place for a congregation Saal
18 = Clock tower
19 = Gem. House
20 = Sisters House
21 = Widows House
22 = Lawyer Schober
23 = Biewighausen
24 = Brothers House
25 = Brethrens Workshop
26 = Store Bagge
27 = Meier
28 = Gunsmith Vogler
29 = Hatmaker Widower Transou
30 = Shoemaker Kuschke
31 = Tinsmith Reich
32 & 33 = Guest House Blum
34 & 35 = Brewery & Swgle Bros. farm
36 = Red tanner Herbst
37 = Shoemaker Leinbach
38 = Cooper Christman
39 = White tanner Yarell
40 = Holland

The map is drawn in brown ink on a quarto-page (8×9-7/8 inches), with integral blank leaf, in very good condition. The paper is English and watermarked “Smyth / 1796”.

History

The plan was discovered by a London bookseller and acquired by Old Salem Museums & Gardens in 2007.

Credit Line

Old Salem Purchase Fund