Old Salem Museums and Gardens

In 1950, a group of dedicated volunteers established Old Salem, Inc. to preserve and restore the Moravian town and gardens of Salem for future generations. As Old Salem grew, more buildings were restored, and new facilities were added–including the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) and St. Phillips African Moravian Church. The National Historic Landmark District boundary expansion for Salem Village, approved in 2016, included contributing resources from Happy Hill, a vibrant community founded by freedmen, many of whom were previously enslaved in Salem.

Today, Old Salem Museums & Gardens shares the rich, authentic, and vast cultural history of the American South–with special emphasis on the Moravians in North Carolina, enslaved and free people of African descent, and indigenous peoples of the Southern Woodland–through the preservation and interpretation of material culture, architecture, and cultural landscapes.