Leather was both an important material and a valuable commodity in early Bethlehemm, making the need for the tannery all the greater and one of the most profitable industries.

[4] As the community grew, so did the tanning operation, and a larger, more permanent stone structure was built on the west side of the tail race in 1761.

[4] By the 1760s, the colonial Moravians processed 1000-2000 animal hides at the Tannery annually and produced a large variety of leather products such as clothing, shoes, harnesses, and machinery parts.

Continued restoration from grants received allowed the opening of the vat room in 2001 which had previously not been accessible due to deterioration of the viewing platforms.

Next they were soaked in a lime solution for several weeks; this facilitated ‘beaming,’ the subsequent scraping of the hide to remove the hair and any remaining flesh.

The hides were then soaked for many weeks in a ‘bating’ solution, a foul-smelling mixture of water, salt, and manure that neutralized any remaining lime and also altered the chemical structure of the skin to make it more flexible.

Next came the actual tanning step of immersing the hides in a vat filled with tanbark and its rich ‘liquor’ extra for six to twelve months.

Each hide required one to two times its weight in bark for proper tanning, with the tannery consuming 60 to 100 cords (218 to 363 cubic meters) of tanbark annually.