Saturday, March 3, 2007

The Beginning

Well, I feel as if I always knew I would do this, but was putting it off, trying to get out of it. Today I give up. This first post will include the two oldest buildings in Nazareth, the Gray Cottage and the Whitefield (pronounced wit-feeld) House, both on the same property at Center and New Streets. The Gray Cottage was built in 1740 and the Whitfield House soon after. I won't go into the history. You can look that up. It's because of the history I took them, though. I'm using some of it in a story, and whenever I write about a place, I gain a feeling of intimacy with it. Many more Nazareth pictures to come.

For the first photo, I use the one with a bit of whimsy connected with my story. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see a crow taking flight, caught at the bottom of the second window to the right of the door and portico. Didn't know it was there until after I snapped the picture.


Not bad. The first European people in Nazareth knew how to build.


What interesting kinds of people once walked through this door? Moravians, Lenape Indians, children of African slaves, and that's just the first couple decades.



This is the side of the gray cottage that faces the street, but with no door it must be the back.

One end of the cottage.


The front of the cottage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for these great pictures. We're visiting Nazareth for the first time and I became fascinated with the history of the Native Americans and Moravians. Your photos are interesting and helpful. We're heading out again this AM to walk around town. Hopefully I can find the Indian Tower.

Geophile said...

Wish I'd been around town this week. We were away on vacation. Would have loved to show you some things here and tell you some stories of the town's history and the Moravians and Indians. Fascinating stuff! Hope you enjoyed your visit.