A list of American Utopian communities.
Contents
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.(August 2013) |
A list of American Utopian communities.
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.(August 2013) |
| Name | Location | Founder | Founding date | Ending date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Economy Village | Pennsylvania | George Rapp | 1824 | 1906 | A Harmonites Village. The Harmony Society is a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785. |
| Nashoba | Tennessee | Frances Wright | 1825 (BBC) | 1828 (BBC) | An abolitionist, free-love community. (LEP) |
| New Harmony | Indiana | Robert Owen | 1825 | 1829 | Harmonites Village |
| New Philadelphia Colony | Pennsylvania | Bernhard Müller [1] | 1832 | 1833 | A libertarian socialist community |
| Oberlin Colony | Ohio | John J. Shipherd and 8 immigrant families [1] | 1833 | 1843 | Community based on Communal ownership of property [1] |
| Brook Farm | Massachusetts | George Ripley Sophia Ripley | 1841 | 1846 | A Transcendent community. Transcendentalism is a religious and cultural philosophy based in New England. |
| North American Phalanx | New Jersey | Charles Sears | 1841 | 1856 | A Fourier Society community. The Fourier Society is based on the ideas of Charles Fourier, a French philosopher. |
| Hopedale Community [2] | Massachusetts | Adin Ballou | 1842 | 1868 | A community based on "Practical Christianity", which included ideas such as temperance, abolitionism, Women's rights, spiritualism and education. [3] |
| Fruitlands | Massachusetts | Amos Alcott | 1843 | 1844 | A Transcendent community. |
| Skaneateles Community | New York | Society for Universal Inquiry | 1843 | 1846 | A Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform community. |
| Sodus Bay Phalanx | New York | Sodus Bay Fourierists | 1844 | 1846 | A Fourier Society community. |
| Wisconsin Phalanx [4] | Wisconsin | Albert Brisbane [5] | 1844 | 1850 | A Fourier Society community. [4] |
| Clermont Phalanx | Ohio | Followers of Charles Fourier | 1844 | 1845 | A Fourier Society community. |
| Prairie Home Community | Ohio | John O. Wattles [1] Valentine Nicholson [1] | 1844 | 1845 | A Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform community. |
| Fruit Hills | Ohio | Orson S. Murray [1] | 1845 | 1852 | A community based on Owenism and anarchism. [1] Maintained close contact with the Kristeen and Grand Prairie Communities. |
| Kristeen Community | Indiana | Charles Mowland [1] | 1845 | 1847 | Founded by Charles Mowland and others who had previously been associated with the Prairie Home Community. [1] A Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform community. |
| Bishop Hill Colony | Illinois | Eric Jansson | 1846 | 1862 | A Swedish Pietist religious commune. |
| Spring Farm Colony | Wisconsin | 6 Fourierite Families [1] | 1846 | 1848 | A Fourier Society community. |
| Oneida Community | New York | John H. Noyes | 1848 | 1880 | A Utopian socialism community. Oneida Community practices included Communalism , Complex Marriage , Male Continence, Mutual Criticism and Ascending Fellowship. |
| Icarians | Louisiana, Texas, Nauvoo, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, California | Étienne Cabet | 1848 | 1898 | A group of egalitarian communes based on the French utopian movement, founded by Étienne Cabet, after led his followers to the United States. |
| Amana Colonies | Iowa | the Community of True Inspiration | 1850s | 1932 | The Amana villages were built one hour apart when traveling by ox cart. Each village had a church, a farm, multi-family residences, workshops and communal kitchens. The communal system continued until 1932. |
| Raritan Bay Union | New Jersey | Marcus Spring Rebecca Buffum | 1853 | 1858 | A Fourier Society community. [1] |
| Aurora Colony | Oregon | William Keil | 1853 | 1883 | Christian utopian community |
| Free Lovers at Davis House | Ohio | Francis Barry [5] | 1854 | 1858 | A community based on Free love and spiritualism. [5] |
| Reunion Colony | Texas | Victor P. Considerant | 1855 | 1869 | A utopian socialism community. |
| Octagon City | Kansas | Henry Clubb Charles DeWolfe John McLaurin | 1856 | 1857 | Originally built as a Vegetarian Colony. |
| Workingmen's Co-operative Colony (Llewellyn Castle) [6] | Kansas | followers of James Bronterre O'Brien | 1869 | 1874 | A community based on the political reform philosophy of Chartist James Bronterre O'Brien. |
| Danish Socialist Colony [7] | Kansas | Louis Pio | 1877 | 1877 | A utopian socialist community |
| Shalam Colony | New Mexico | John B. Newbrough Andrew Howland | 1884 | 1901 | A community in which members would live peaceful, vegetarian lifestyles, and where orphaned urban children were to be raised. |
| Home, Washington | Washington | George H. Allen Oliver A. Verity B. F. O'Dell | 1895 | 1919 | An intentional community based on anarchist philosophy |
| Nucla | Colorado | Colorado Cooperative Company | 1896 | Established following the Panic of 1893. Originally called Piñon. [8] [9] | |
| Name | Location | Founder | Founding date | Ending date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arden Village | Delaware | Frank Stephens Will Price | 1900 | Currently Active | An art colony founded as a Georgist single-tax art community. |
| Zion, Illinois | Illinois | John Alexander Dowie | 1900 | 1907 | A Utopian Christian religious community, reorganized following fraud allegations and founder's death into modern city. |
| East Wind Community | Ozark County, Missouri | unknown | 1973 | present | A secular and democratic community in which members hold all communities assets in common. |
| Equality Colony | Washington | Norman W. Lermond Ed Pelton | 1900 | 1907 | Socialist Colony |
| Fairhope Single Tax Corporation, Fairhope, AL | Alabama | Fairhope Industrial Association | 1894 | currently still in operation | Fairhope was first settled in 1894 by Georgist. The Single tax experiment was incorporated as the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation under Alabama law in 1904. The municipality of Fairhope was incorporated in 1908. [10] |
| The Farm (Tennessee) | Lewis County, Tennessee | Stephen Gaskin | 1971 | present | Hippie Buddhist-inspired vegetarian community. De-collectivized in 1983. |
| Freeland Association | Washington | Dissident members of the Equality Colony | 1900 | 1906 [5] | A socialist commune. The first settlers dissident members of the nearby Equality Colony. [11] While the Freeland Association dissolved in 1906 [5] the census-designated place (CDP) of Freeland, Washington continues to exist. |
| Post | Texas | C.W. Post | 1907 | now Post, Texas | |
| Llano del Rio | California | Job Harriman | 1914 | 1918 | Unbuilt project by architect and planner Alice Constance Austin with strong emphasis on shared domestic work |
| Twin Oaks | Virginia | 1967 | currently active |
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