Location: NC 150 at SR 3021 (Friedberg Road) south of Winston-Salem
County: Forsyth
Original Date Cast: 1974
The first wave of Moravians moved into Piedmont North Carolina in 1753, a year after land was purchased in the area they called Wachovia. The first immigrants were men from Pennsylvania who established a village and prepared for future settlers, including women and children who arrived in 1754. Far from the only immigrants to the region, the Moravians from Pennsylvania developed close relationships with other recent immigrants, including Adam Spach, who moved to the area just outside of Wachovia in 1754. Spach and the Moravian community worked together in times of trouble, particularly when local Native Americans attacked their settlements.
Spach invited the Moravians to worship in his home and in 1758 a minister preached to a gathering of eight families there. That first service established what grew to be known as the Friedberg Congregation. The congregation had no permanent minister and services were held at sporadic intervals in its early years. The Spach family and their neighbors held services in their homes until 1769 when the first Friedberg meetinghouse was consecrated. A few years later the Friedberg Congregation was formally established by the Moravian Church and permanent ministers began to serve the congregation. As the community continued to grow with more immigrants arriving from Pennsylvania, Spach and his neighbors worked to establish a schoolhouse in the area, purchasing land for the school in 1773. The education received by the children reflected the church’s strong religious foundation and included rote learning of Bible passages in addition to mathematics for older students.
The meetinghouse at Friedberg has been through several changes. The next building consecrated for worship was completed in 1788 and a third was added in 1827. The structure completed in 1827 was used by the congregation into the twentieth century when it was removed for a newer, larger sanctuary that was dedicated in 1980.
References:
Adelaide Fries et al., Forsyth: The History of a County on the March (1976)
Adelaide Fries et al., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, I-XII
Friedberg Church website: http://www.friedbergmoravian.org/
Moravian Church History website: http://www.fmoran.com/morav.html