Ueno Daibutsu in Tokyo

Shelter House in Emmaus, Pennsylvania

In the 18th century, rural Pennsylvania wasn’t an easy place to live. Established settlements were scarce, and the fear of attacks by Native Americans was constant (if ultimately unfulfilled). But for settlers looking for safety, there were places that could provide food and shelter. Nearly a decade before the Moravians started their famous community at Bethlehem, settlers 10 miles south erected their own place of sanctuary. Built around 1734, the Shelter House—from the German zufluchtshaus—now stands as the oldest continually occupied structure in the Lehigh Valley.