During the early years of Bethlehem, worship took place in a chapel space in the Gemeinhaus (
NO22); the Old Chapel was the first structure built solely for the purpose of worship. It is a simple two-story rubble building, supported externally by an array of massive stone buttresses—apparently added when the weight of the original tile roof began to push out its walls. To the south it abuts the Gemeinhaus and the Sisters’ House (
NO22.1),
George E. Thomas, "Old Chapel", [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-NO22.3.
Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 274-275.
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