[5] The former Moravian Gemeinhaus (meaning Community House) is located in the historic heart of Bethlehem, at the northeast corner of West Church Street and Heckewelder Place.

The front roof face is pierced by six small shed-roof dormers, and the facade is ten bays wide, divided into two five-bay sections each with a center entrance.

The house was originally built by the Moravian settlers who founded Bethlehem as a home for its entire community (numbering 80 individuals) and later for the married clergy and officers.

The Sisters prepared daily meals in the lower level for the community, soon numbering over 100 people, until a separate kitchen was built within the Bell House.

[6] The Gemeinhaus was the location of the first medical office in Bethlehem established by Dr. John Adolph Meyer in 1742, whose practice is believed to be the forerunner of the earliest hospital concept in America.

Based out of a small room in the Gemeinhaus (a space that is now a restroom) Meyer along with eight male and seven female nurses provided care for the community with innovative medical practices that were well ahead of their time.

[7] Meyer later opened Bethlehem's first apothecary in 1743 within the building, which later moved into the Bell House until a laboratory was constructed along present-day Main Street in 1752.

[8] The first classes in the nation to educate girls in a broad curriculum similar to what boys were taught were instituted in 1742 by Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf.

Visitors can learn about early Moravian communal living, missionary work, and their progressive educational system and medicinal practices on guided tours.

[9] Also on display are historic fire-fighting tools such as fire buckets and helmets, as well as a section of wooden pipe from the original pumped water system of the 1762 Waterworks.