Lititz

"Lititz was founded by members of the Moravian Church in 1756 and was named by a German form of name of the Litice Castle in Bohemia."¹ It was "one of four leading Moravian communities in Pennsylvania, the other three being Bethlehem, Emmaus, and Nazareth."¹ The church's hold on the town was nearly total: "For a century, only Moravians were permitted to live in Lititz,"¹ and "until the middle of the 19th century, only members of the congregation could own houses; others were required to lease."¹

The Moravians' reach ran to war and schooling alike. "During the American Revolutionary War, Brethren's House, built in 1759, was used as a hospital for Continental Army troops, and a number of Continental Army soldiers died and were buried here."¹ Lititz is also home to Linden Hall, "the oldest all-girls boarding school in the United States,"¹ "founded by the Moravians in 1746, a decade before the borough was incorporated."¹

That founding-era fabric still stands in the Lititz Moravian Historic District, which gathers "113 contributing buildings"² dating "from roughly 1755 to 1930"² — among them the Sisters' House (1758), Brothers' House (1759), and Moravian Church (1787).² Its churchyard, the Moravian Church Cemetery, "was established in 1758 and contains the graves of General John Augustus Sutter, of California Gold Rush fame."²

Lititz packs an outsized number of draws into a few walkable blocks of East Main Street. The one not to miss is the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, which calls itself "the first commercial pretzel bakery in America,"³ founded in 1861 — and notes that "the Sturgis Family is the oldest pretzel baking family in America."³ Tours let you twist your own pretzel beside the original 1861 brick ovens.

A short stroll covers the rest of the old town: Wilbur Chocolate's Candy Americana Museum and Lititz Springs Park sit within a few blocks of the Moravian churchyard.¹ The downtown has drawn national notice — Lititz was named Budget Travel's "America's Coolest Small Town" in 2013.⁴ If you can, time a visit for the town's Independence Day celebration, "founded in 1813,"¹ which still features fireworks and a Queen of Candles pageant.