Est. 1741 · Bethlehem Moravian National Historic Landmark District · Operated by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites · Colonial-Era Buildings (Goundie House, Sun Inn)
Bethlehem was founded in 1741 as a Moravian settlement, and its colonial core is now a National Historic Landmark district. Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites is the nonprofit that owns and operates many of the surviving 18th-century buildings, including the 1810 Goundie House where this tour begins and the 1758 Sun Inn where it ends.
The Spirited Tales Pub Tour is one of the organization's seasonal experiences, run in September and October. Rather than a freestanding ghost-walk operator, it is staffed by Historic Bethlehem's own certified costumed docents, who weave the district's documented history into its haunting legends as the group walks from stop to stop.
The tour leans on real material: colonial-era deaths, the histories of specific buildings, and the long folklore attached to places like the Sun Inn, which has hosted figures including George Washington and which carries its own ghost stories. The walk concludes at the Sun Inn with a guided spirits tasting and a souvenir glass.
Because it is run by the stewardship organization itself, the tour treats the legends as part of the district's cultural heritage. Discover Lehigh Valley lists it among the area's official paranormal-themed attractions. Tickets are sold through Historic Bethlehem's website, and tours frequently sell out.
Sources
- https://www.historicbethlehem.org/visit-us/experience/spirited-tales-pub-tour/
- https://www.discoverlehighvalley.com/things-to-do/attractions/paranormal-haunted/
Apparitions in colonial buildingsSpectral activity at the Sun Inn
Rather than a single haunting, the Spirited Tales tour assembles the legends of an entire district. Its stops include some of the most storied colonial buildings in the Lehigh Valley, and the docents tie each ghost story to the building's actual past.
The Sun Inn, built in 1758 and the tour's final stop, is the best-documented of these. It hosted prominent Revolutionary-era figures and carries long-standing reports of spectral activity, which the tour folds into its tasting finale. Other stops draw on the deaths and hard histories of an 18th-century settlement, where Moravian communal life, early industry, and disease left their marks.
The tour's framing is deliberately historical. Because Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites runs it, the legends are presented as part of the district's heritage and folklore, sourced to the buildings' real records rather than invented for effect. Visitors looking for the specific stories should expect documented colonial history first and ghost lore second.
