Founded in 1745, the Moravian Book Shop is the oldest bookstore in the country. The shop was founded in 1745 when the Moravian Church appointed Samuel Powell of the Church’s Crown Inn on the South Side of the Lehigh River to operate a book store. After several locations, the Moravian Book Shop was moved to the church’s publications building near the Central Moravian Church in 1871. Today, the Moravian Book Shop’s Bethlehem location is this same site on Historic Main Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.