Muhlenberg House
Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In this house Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, great Lutheran leader, lived from 1776 until his death in 1787. His son Peter Muhlenberg, a noted general of the American Revolution, lived here 1783-1802.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This Trappe house was the home of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the German-born pastor often called the organizer of the Lutheran church in America, who lived here from 1776 until his death in 1787. His son Peter Muhlenberg — famous for reportedly shedding his clerical robes to reveal a Continental uniform — went on to become a general in the Revolution and later lived in the same house. Under one roof the family joined the story of American religion to the story of American independence.
Why it matters
The Muhlenbergs bridge two founding currents of the new nation — the planting of an immigrant church tradition and the fight for independence — in a single family and a single Pennsylvania home.
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Related people
- · Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
- · Peter Muhlenberg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. David's Church
Radnor Township, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1715 by Welsh Episcopalians who had come to Penn's colony in search of land and religious freedom, St. David's Church became one of the enduring landmarks of Pennsylvania's "Welsh Tract." Its weathered stones and quiet churchyard so moved Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that he immortalized the place in verse. The churchyard is also the final resting place of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the fiery Revolutionary War commander whose remains were carried here from Erie in 1809, years after his death.
Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg (1750-1801)
Trappe, PA · est. 2008
Frederick Muhlenberg came of age as the American republic was being invented on paper. A Lutheran minister turned statesman, he sat in the Continental Congress, led Pennsylvania's assembly, and presided over the state convention that ratified the new federal Constitution in 1787. When the first Congress convened in 1789 he was chosen Speaker of the House, and his was the first signature on the Bill of Rights. He kept his home here in Trappe through those founding years.
Augustus Lutheran Church
Trappe, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1743, Augustus Lutheran Church at Trappe is celebrated as the oldest unchanged Lutheran church building in America. It was raised by Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the German-born patriarch who organized scattered Lutheran congregations into a unified American church and is often called the father of American Lutheranism. Muhlenberg died in 1787 and lies buried in the churchyard beside his enduring work.
Washington Revolutionary War Encampment Monument
Perkiomen Township, PA
During the tense weeks around the Battle of Germantown in the fall of 1777, George Washington marched his army through the Pennsylvania countryside, camping at Pennypacker Mills in late September and again in early October. Washington made his headquarters in the house of Samuel Pennypacker while the Continental Army rested and regrouped nearby. This stone, placed by the Historical Society of Montgomery County in 1897, marks the ground where that encampment stood.