Drink, Pilgrim, Here Fountain
Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Drink, Pilgrim Here...
The Story
This inscription belongs to the old tradition of the wayside fountain—a public spring or basin set beside a road to refresh travelers, and often carrying a few carved lines of welcome. Bethlehem grew from a Moravian settlement founded in 1741, a community shaped by faith and by a steady stream of visitors, and its stone fountains and springs long offered cool water to those passing through. The single surviving line, addressed directly to the 'Pilgrim,' turns an ordinary drink of water into a small moment of hospitality and reflection.
Why it matters
Wayside fountains like this one preserved a civic ideal that public water—and a kind word—should be free to every traveler, a small but genuine thread in the story of how American towns welcomed those on the road.
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