Henry Antes

Henry Antes (1701 – July 20, 1755) was an early 18th-century settler of Pennsylvania, an architect and builder and a leader of the Congregation of God in the Spirit and then the Moravian Church. He is considered one of the most important religious/political leaders of the time, specifically because he preached tolerance and understanding.

His home, Henry Antes House, is recognized as one of the first interracial and nonsectarian boys schools in Pennsylvania and possibly in America. Upon invitation of Antes's son Colonel Frederick Antes, George Washington and his troops stayed at Henry Antes house from September 23 to 26, 1777, during the Philadelphia Campaign. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Biography Antes was born in 1701 in Freinsheim in Electoral Palatinate. He became a leader in the civil and religious affairs of the colony. The school was called the Frederickstown School and educated as many as 34 boys at one point including a Black boy from St. Thomas, West Indies and a Mohegan Indian.

He was an elder in the Falkner Swamp district of the German Reformed Church.

Relatives His brother-in-law was William DeWees, who owned Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, during Washington's encampment during the winter of 1777.

John Antes (1740–1811) was his son and the first American Moravian missionary to travel and work in Egypt, one of the earliest American-born chamber music composers, and the maker of perhaps the earliest surviving bowed string instrument made in America.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe his grandson and so called "father of American architecture." He was the second Architect of the Capitol and responsible for the design of the White House porticos.

Judge Henry Barnhart, his great-grandson, was an elected member of the Legislature of Centre County, Pa, serving two terms.