{"nrhp_refnum":"90000705","name":"Burnside Plantation","other_names":["Burnside, James, Plantation","Lerch Farm"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Schoenersville Rd., 2 mi. SE of jct. with Easton Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bethlehem","county":"Lehigh County","state":"PA","lat":40.63094036200005,"lon":-75.38900036899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-05-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Burnside Plantation is a farmstead of about 6.5 acres on the west bank of Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, centred on a two-story stone farmhouse begun in 1748. It includes outbuildings, a corn crib and the stone foundation of an 1841 bank barn.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the farm is an important example of Pennsylvania German architecture and of Moravian Plantation-system farming in Bethlehem. The house shows changes in style from the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, and the Moravian Archives hold unusually complete written records of its construction and tenancy.","narrative":"Burnside Plantation is a farmstead on the west bank of Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem, anchored by a two-story stone farmhouse whose south section was begun in 1748 by James Burnside, a former Irish-born Moravian who had settled in Savannah and then Bethlehem. The house was enlarged with a two-bay stone addition in 1816-1818, and later received a summer kitchen and cool cellar. Around it stand a wagon shed, a corn crib, and the stone foundation of an 1841-1842 Swiss-style bank barn. The property was leased as one of the Moravian Church's Bethlehem Plantations until 1845 and then sold to private owners. Its importance lies in the rare survival of Moravian lease, tax and map records that document how the house and farm changed over roughly a century, and in the mix of old hand-labour methods and newer horse-powered equipment seen on the site.","period_of_significance":"1748-1848","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Germanic; Federal","criteria":["A"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.640691-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/90000705.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000705/0066e90780-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000705/0066e90780-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Shuvaev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burnside_Plantation_Farmhouse_01.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Shuvaev</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burnside_Plantation_Farmhouse_01.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"79002307","name":"Lehigh Canal; Allentown to Hopeville Section","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/lehigh-canal-allentown-to-hopeville-section-79002307/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994640","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_Plantation_(Bethlehem,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5000140"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lehigh-county/burnside-plantation-90000705/"}