The site of today’s Historic Hotel Bethlehem changed as well, for the Moravians replaced the First House of Bethlehem with a general store in 1794. In fact, this business would gradually morph into a gorgeous inn over the next three decades, becoming the “Golden Eagle Hotel” at the beginning of the 1820s. That incarnation of the Historic Hotel Bethlehem continued to operate unhindered right up until 1919, when the building began temporarily housing convalescing soldiers upon their return from the European battlefields of World War I. Many illustrious guests had also traveled to the Golden Eagle Hotel, including Mark Twain, William Waldorf Astor, and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

Historic Hotel Bethlehem