Moravian University
Moravian College is a four-year liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Moravian College traces its roots to a grammar school founded in 1742, becoming chartered as a college in 1863.
It traces its history to a school for boys in Bethlehem, founded by Benigna Zinzendorf in 1742. She was the daughter of Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (1700 - 1760), who was the benefactor of the fledgling Moravian communities in Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Another boys' school was founded in 1743 in Nazareth and the two merged in 1759 to form Nazareth Hall. Moravian College and Theological Seminary was established as an extension of Nazareth Hall in 1807 and was chartered to grant baccalaureate degrees in 1863.
Moravian College currently enrolls over 1,300 full-time resident undergraduate students in a wide variety of majors, all of which are presented in the liberal arts tradition. Its varied and highly regarded music programs grow from the Moravian Church's traditions. The College also has evening undergraduate programs for adults seeking continuing education and two Masters degree programs, the Masters of Business Administration and Master of Science in Education.
The College's programs are offered on two campuses. Art and music programs are offered in Bethlehem's historic district. Many of the buildings on that campus were built during the colonial period. The facilities have been renovated to include an art gallery that offers several shows each year, an auditorium with excellent acoustics, recital halls, and student rehearsal rooms and studios.
All other programs are offered on a campus whose oldest academic building, Comenius Hall, was built in 1892. The campus houses Reeves Library, Johnston Hall and the Timothy M. Breidagam Athletic and Recreation Center, Collier Hall of Science, the Haupert Union Building, several classroom buildings, and most student housing. The distance between the campuses is about 0.8 miles, called the "Moravian Mile" for its role in the first year students' orientation program.
The College has long asserted it is the sixth-oldest college in the United States, after Harvard (1636), The College of William and Mary (1693), St. John's College in Annapolis (1696), Yale (1701), and the University of Pennsylvania (1740), though all six of the colleges operating by 1754 still exist today and do not include Moravian among their number.