Welcome to Moravian Academy

Moravian Academy is a preschool through 12th-grade co-educational college preparatory school that descended from the first school for girls in the American colonies, established by a 16-year-old Countess, Benigna Von Zinzendorf. The original school was established in Bethlehem, PA in 1742. Later, in 1971, Moravian Seminary for Girls merged with Moravian Preparatory School to form Moravian Academy. The Swain School, a preschool through 8th-grade secular co-educational independent school, was also founded by a pioneering woman, D. Esther Swain, in 1929. In August 2020, Moravian Academy and The Swain School merged, creating a new school still operating under the name Moravian Academy.

The school is comprised of over 900 students and 200 employees from across the region on three campuses, each one tailored to a distinct student experience and culture: 

The Downtown Campus (preschool-grade 8), situated alongside the national historic site in the heart of the City of Bethlehem;

The Swain Campus (preschool-grade 8), a 22-acre contemporary campus in the beautiful west end of Allentown

The Merle-Smith Campus (grades 9-12), situated on 120 acres of bucolic green expanse in Bethlehem Township


Stronger Together

Since the 2020 merger, we have become one school on three campuses that is stronger together. 
Enhanced Educational Experience
  • We created a new Associate Head of School role, designed to work with the academic leaders and cross-functional teams across all three campuses to advance our mission in ways that strengthen our collective school and support faculty, families, and students.
  • We also formed an Educational Leadership Team that will benefit from the individual expertise that they lend to the group while also respecting the unique attributes of each campus.  
Current Benefits of the Merger
  • We have expanded and streamlined operations, allowing us to serve our families and students more efficiently with services like online tuition payment and an enhanced transition process for rising ninth-grade students from the Swain Campus.
  • Middle School students on the Swain and Downtown campuses came together for fall sports creating more opportunities for all students including opportunities for students from the Swain Campus to enter into the PIAA.  
  • We grew our Support Staff on all three campuses, positioning our school to better meet the social and emotional needs of all students and offer increased learning support for students of all ages on the Downtown and Swain Campuses. 
  • Combining the expertise of faculty from all three campuses, we offered opportunities for all-school professional development and training, extended collaboration between departments and campuses, and reinvigorated brainstorming and planning sessions.
Increased Financial Security
  • The efficiencies we gained from our streamlined administration allowed us to hire a Director of Community and Inclusion and a Director of Enrollment Management, essential positions to growing and strengthening our community. 
  • By combining our faculty and staff, we were able to lower our health insurance premiums and gain access to more robust benefits allowing us to attract and retain the best educators in the Lehigh Valley. 
  • Our Institutional Advancement team raised $4.7 million last fiscal year⁠—the best ever in our school's combined histories⁠—thanks to concerted fundraising efforts across all three campuses and our wider community. 
  • We hired a professional endowment firm to strategically grow our assets, ensuring financial stability well into the future.
At this phase of our school's advancement, our goal is to strengthen campus identities by developing signature programs that align with the culture of each campus. We may not be able to be everything to everybody, but together we can create campus identities around the values and experiences most important to the students at the heart of our mission.
Head of School
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Adrianne Finley Odell as Head of School.

Board of Trustees

Moravian Academy is governed by a Board of Trustees composed of parents, alumni and prominent community members. As stewards of the school's institutional goals, the board ensures that Moravian Academy's mission is appropriate and relevant to the community it serves. While the board looks at the big picture, the head of school is responsible for the school’s day-to-day operation, and the two work together to innovate, regulate and plan for the future.

Moravian Academy. Discover More.

Downtown Campus

Preschool-Grade 8
7 E. Market Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018

Swain School

Preschool - Grade 8
1100 S 24th St, Allentown, PA 18103

Merle-Smith Campus

Grades 9-12
4313 Green Pond Road, Bethlehem, PA 18020