Historic Bethabara Park Gift Shop
The gift shop at Historic Bethabara Park offers handcrafted items that honor the Moravian, colonial, and natural history of Bethabara, the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina. Made by regional artisans, the items for sale represent trades found in Bethabara during the latter half of the 18th century. The gift shop is open during Park hours. Contact Diana Overbey, Gift Shop Manager, at (336) 924-8191, ext. 26, or doverbey@triadbiz.rr.com for further information.
Items available in the Historic Bethabara Park Gift Shop:
Baskets
Cindy Poindexter of Lewisville is an accomplished basket weaver. We offer her baskets in all shapes and sizes. A descendent of Moravians, she constructs 16-point Moravian star ornaments and 12-point Moravian earrings for our gift shop as well.
Bee Glow Lanterns
Bee Global is a small candle company located in Robbinsville, NC, that offers handmade beeswax creations. Each lantern is individually crafted using locally grown wildflowers and native ferns and leaves. Each lantern comes with a beeswax votive that, when lit, illuminates the design on the lantern.
Books
We stock hard-to-find fiction and non-fiction books about Moravian history, colonial trades and natural history that are age-appropriate for adults and children.
Candles
Herbert Tesh, of the Busy Bee Candle Shop in Lexington, produces our beeswax candles, either trimmed for Christmas love feasts or untrimmed for any season. The men of Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem supply our beeswax tapers.
  
Cards
Note cards, produced exclusively for Historic Bethabara Park, feature Pfafftown artist Marthajohn Pencotty’s original watercolors of our historic buildings and Winston-Salem’s Betty Bowles Haywood’s interpretive paintings of birds. Charlotte resident Dennis Nodine’s photographs of the Park are available as postcards.
Cookies
Salem Baking Company’s cookies, cheese straws, and shortbread are always available.
Field Guide to Historic Bethabara Park
This insightful Field Guide from Waterford Press will guide you through the Park's wildlife and plants. Compare what we see today with Christian Reuter's detailed accounting of the land that was settled by Moravians. Many of the plants and animals Reuter documented are still found in Historic Bethabara Park and other Winston-Salem Forsyth County parks and yards.
   
Jamestown Glass
This glass was hand-crafted by master glassblowers at the Jamestown Glasshouse in Jamestown, Virginia, only a few yards away from the site where English colonists first made glassware in 1608. Using tools and techniques similar to those used in the 17th century, each piece is hand-made. No two pieces are identical.
Jewelry
Paper Moravian Star earrings by Cindy Poindexter of Lewisville, and star pendants by Carrene Sink of Winston-Salem make beautiful gifts.
Metalwork
In colonial days, Bethabara had a resident blacksmith and tinsmith. Today, replicas of those early pieces can be found in the lanterns, candleholders, and ornaments of tinsmiths Peter Blum III of Elkin and Bill McKinnis of Tobaccoville. Decorative forged iron pieces by Peter O’Shaughnessy of Vesuvius, VA, are also available.
  
Pottery
The original Bethabara potter, who arrived in 1755, made red earthenware pottery. Today’s regional potters still work in the redware tradition. We feature redware animal ornaments by David and Mary Farrell of Westmoore Pottery in Seagrove. Also available are plates, mugs, pitchers, and spoon rests by Hal Pugh and Eleanor Minnock-Pugh of New Salem Pottery in Randleman. The Pughs’ work is decorated with the flora and fauna found in Bethabara’s wetlands.
Also available in the gift shop are cobalt blue Moravian Star decorative tiles made by Starbuck Goldner Tile of Bethlehem, PA. Artists Joanna Blitch and Barrett Stanley of Greensboro design, specifically for our gift shop, vases and plates of birds found in Historic Bethabara Park.
Scherenschnitte
Scherenschnitte, a centuries-old scissoring tradition, was brought to America by German immigrants as early as the 1700s. This tradition was often used as a way to embellish birth and marriage records. Dottie Netherton, who is self-taught, has been cutting her original designs for over 26 years. Take a piece of German heritage home with you by purchasing a set of her beautiful scherenschnitte cards.
  
Soaps
MoonDance soaps is a home-based business located in Wake County, NC. Rachel DuBois manufactures soap the old-fashioned way: batch saponification of vegetable oils combined with essential oils, fragrance oils, herbs, spices, goat milk and honey for lovely hand and body soaps. Each bar is hand cut and cured for four weeks using environmentally-friendly procedures.
Textiles
A Family owned and operated business out of Red Lion, PA - Family Heirloom Weavers reproduces 18th and 19th century designs in their textiles. Their work can be found at many historic sites and have been featured in movies such as Cold Mountain. Their table runners, pillows, and placemats are featured in our shop.
Toys
Pioneer Folk Toys of Hudson make replicas of wooden colonial toys for us, including the very popular “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Preacher and Bear.” Rifles, pistols, tricorn hats, and other colonial toys, produced by historic toymakers from throughout the eastern half of the United States, are available in the gift shop.
  
Wood
Using wood from native trees, craftsman William Mangum of Statesville makes bowls and plates for 18th century re-enactors as well as for the Historic Bethabara Park Gift Shop. Glendon Boyd is a fourth generation woodworker. His bread servers and bowls are made of cherry, walnut, hickory and cucumber magnolia.
Brandon Lyon of Ronda, NC has been making birdhouses and feeding stations since he was a small boy.
Chuck Hotchkiss is an accomplished woodworker living in Winston Salem, NC. His original 18th century-style pieces are based on designs found in Wallace Nutting's book The Furniture Treasury. Each piece is finished in the traditional milk paint often used during the 18th century.
  
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