Christian Spring Spiritual Center
2019 edit: This is now a private residence. Please respect the privacy of the owners. Formally a ministry of Bethlehem’s Central Moravian Church
MAP 18
The architect Dwight James Baum was hired by the Johnston family to design a home for Archibald Borhek Johnston (“Arch Jr.”) (1894-1980) near the Christian Spring Road entrance to Camel’s Hump Farms. Curtis Lovelace, the architect of the “Big House,” did not design this home. Baum’s name and place of business, Riverside-on-Hudson in New York City, appear on a small section of an architectural plan for “details of closet drawers in bedroom #2.” The plan’s date is May 26, 1927.
Upon completion, the younger Archibald and his wife Jean (1899-1975) took possession and raised their three daughters, Amanda (1924-2011), Elizabeth (1928-2006), and Janet (1932-2005) in it. After his death in 1980, the home passed to his daughter, Elizabeth Johnston Prime. She is perhaps best known to area residents for her dollhouse collection, now available to view at the Kemerer Museum in Bethlehem. Mrs. Prime bequeathed the home to Central Moravian Church and it is now known as the “Christian Spring Spiritual Center in loving memory of Archibald Johnston.”