Past 2025 Guild Events
December 6th, 2025 The Moravian Market filled Main Street with artisans whose lovely handcrafted items expressed Moravian customs and traditions.
The November Raffle for a Christmas Carousel.
October 26, 2025 The Annual Event. Each year, Old Salem Visitors Centers opens its doors for an afternoon celebrating Wachovia Historical Society, its accomplishments during 2025 and plans for 2026. This years event focused Wachovia Historical Society’s establishment of the Adam and Maria Spach Historic Park. The importance of this early settlement, established at the same time as Salem, was the topic for 2025 keynote speakers, Michelle DeLapp and Jimmy Snyder. Displays of artifacts found during archaeological digs at the historic park were on display in the lobby along with Moravian crafts by artisans participating in December’s Moravian Market. The Reagan High School Chamber Music Players performed, a reminder that Moravians composed some of the earliest chamber music in America. They were followed by Sarah and Michael Wood who captivated the audience with unique interpretations of traditional music performed on flute and violin.The Annual Event closed with the presentation of the Archie K. Davis Award to Verna Spainhour Brewer for her many contributions preserving the heritage of immigrants to Bethabara, Bethania, and nearby settlements and the establishment of an original cabin in King, NC where many come from around the country to celebrate Heritage Day, featuring fellowship and speakers on regional history.
September 7, 2025 Dr. Craig Atwood, Herrnhut. As Director of the Center for Moravian Studies in Bethlehem, PA, Craig was successful in the quest to have Herrnhut declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. His recent completion of a history of the Moravian Church from 1457 to the present allows Craig to focus on Herrnhut with rare insight, bringing together the events and people that led to Herrnhut’s founding and the Moravian challenge to old world order.
August 9th open to Home Moravian Membership and Wachovia Historical Society Membership: no ticket
Presenters: Dr. Craig Atwood, Betsy Overton Hill, and Samantha Mandel.
Ready for a little travel? Dr. Craig Atwood and Betsy Overton Hill will preview an extraordinary journey following the footsteps of the early Moravians. This trip is specifically planned to trace the legacy of Moravian forebearers. From the early foundation of the Moravian faith in John Huss’ Prague to the Commenius Museum to the fields of Kunvald and Herrnhut, everyday will combine rich Moravian culture with the landscape of Central Europe.
July 4, 2025 8 am. Music in the Salem Square opens this yearly morning observance of the first Fourth of July Celebration. Come hear selected readings and history of events in Salem leading up to our independence.
June 1, 2025 Dr. Tom Sears introduces members to the Early Physicians of Wachovia. Dr. Sears profiles the personalities, methods of healing, and challenges of the well trained physicians who helped establish the Moravian settlements in Wachovia as places of healing.
May 4. 2025 Tom Denegre’s breathtaking photography and well-chosen maps show the ability of Salem to support growth and expansion in trade, manufacturing, and social agriculture, serving the entire region of the Piedmont. Tom’s lecture on Salem First explores an often overlooked history of Salem’s establishments: hotels, merchants, bookstores, toy shops, confectionaries, jewelers, candlemakers, clock makers, chair makers, shoemakers, gunsmths, coopersmiths, tailors, tine plate workers, blacksmiths, tanners, skin dressers, saddler and harness makers, coopers, potters, wheelwrights, portrait painters, bakers, printers, apothecaries, tobacconists, milliners – all supported and developed in Salem by 1835 with a mere population of 700 inhabitants.
April 6, 2025 Martha Hartley, Director of Moravian Research, leads members on a walk tracing the urban creeks and springs that are the visible reminders of the vital ecosystem that was vital to the development of Salem. Her Wachovia Waterways in Salem takes guests to visible remains of the once essential springs, creeks, and rivers that are largely overlooked.
March 2,2025 Hostess Mary Tribble opens up her home in Old Salem to presenter Margaret Supplee Smith for A Celebration of Salem Families who contributed to the living museum that is now Old Salem. Margaret’s presentation concentrates on material from many unpublished resources focusing on the legacies of the Bahnson, Gray, and Hanes families.
February 2, 2025 Presenter Sabrina Garity opens up the Moravian Archives for an exclusive tour emphasizing the maps and work of Moravian Surveyors whose diverse talents and personalities insured the success of the Wachovia Tract settlements.
January 5 2025 Salem Earthware in the Kitchen: Salem artisan Demmie Stuart creates a unique event highlighting the everyday cookware used and sold by the Moravians in Salem’s early years as a commercial town. She also takes guests step by step athrough a Moravian recipee as s they prepare tarts using Moravian molds.
The short story tracks the evolution of a complex physician/patient relationship in which a busy physician takes an instant dislike to a young immigrant couple who brings their infant to the office for a check-up. The readers and the narrator for the performance were medical students and emeritus faculty from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Society board member Dr. Gene Adcock moderated the program and facilitated the discussion after the performance. The 23 attendees, including the performers, participated in a provocative and insightful conversation after the performance. Dr. Tim Kute shared this response, “I thought that the presentation gave everyone a feeling of how medicine was practiced at that time. One could see the prejudices but also the feelings that taking care of people was very important to the doctors. It was also nice to visit the doctor’s house and examine what he had to work within his practice.” Following the discussion, participants were treated to a tour of The Moravian Way of Health and Healing in the Doctor’s House 
Winston-Salem has a wealth of historical and medical resources that tie together the past and the present. The Medical Readers’ Theater concept encourages anyone to perform and initiate thought-provoking conversations that focus on issues pertinent to the physical, spiritual, and psychological aspects of health and healing 200 years ago and today.
On July 4, 1783, the citizens of Wachovia celebrated our nation’s independence in what was the earliest documented observance of the day. Among the events in Salem was a performance of Freudenpsalm, or Psalm of Joy, compiled by Moravian composer Johann Friedrich Peter.