Program

Hometown Heritage®

Subject

Building, Religion

Location

982 Main St, Newfoundland, PA 18445, USA

Lat/Long

41.308130235891, -75.31961369331

Grant Recipient

Greene Dreher Historical Society

In 1828 a group of families immigrated to the United States from Gondelshein, Germany. They arrived on the ship Bayard in September, disembarking in New York City. It is thought fifteen families in total travelled together. In 1831 the families purchased 7 large contiguous tracts of land in Pennsylvania, consisting of 1,971 acres. The families settled on this land, and by 1837 they formally organized as a Moravian Church. That same year, they built their first church building in what was then called East Sterling but is now part of Newfoundland. It was called the Hopedale Moravian Church.

The church congregation outgrew its first building in the 1850s, and by 1853 the building was torn down, and a new, larger building was constructed on the same site. By 1908, the second church was showing its age, and records show that the 55-year-old building was torn down, again to be replaced by a new building. The building the church members constructed lasted this time and still stands today on the same site as the first and second churches. As of 2026, it is known as the Newfoundland Moravian Church.