Home Moravian Church

The Salem Congregation was formally organized on November 13, 1771, before this city existed, before the county existed, before Winston and Salem had grown close enough to merge. The Moravians had already been here nearly two decades by then — they purchased nearly 99,000 acres in 1753 and called it Wachovia, laying out Salem as the central town, grouping the congregation's public buildings around a square. The sanctuary at the heart of that plan was consecrated November 9, 1800, plans completed two years before that. It has been the worship home ever since.

The name came from what the congregation did next. As its Sunday School programs spread into the surrounding towns, this building became what people called the home church. The name stuck, and it holds now: Home Moravian Church, at 529 South Church Street.

God's Acre Cemetery sits roughly 100 yards to the north. Salem Square and that cemetery have held the Moravian Easter Sunrise Service every year since 1772 — the tradition itself reaches back further, to Herrnhut, Germany, in 1732. Thousands gather each Easter. Some come from overseas.

The sanctuary has a distinctive belfry. Inside there is a pipe organ and stained-glass windows. From March through November, Wednesday through Saturday, members open the building and speak informally with anyone who walks in — about Moravian history, about what it has meant to belong to a congregation this old. Sunday worship is open to all, no credentials required.

This is one of those places where the institution and the building have lasted long enough to become the same thing. You don't come to see it from the outside. You come because something is still happening here, the same as it has been since before the country finished becoming a country.