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A wide range of American communities across US history were founded with the intent of achieving a utopian community, several of which are still active into the present day.
| Name | Location | Founder | Founding date | Ending date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoar | Ohio | Joseph Bimeler | 1817 | 1898 | Founded by German religious separatists who wanted religious freedom in America. |
| 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 | 1828 | An abolitionist, free-love community. (LEP) |
| New Harmony | Indiana | Robert Owen | 1825 | 1829 | Former Harmonite Village bought by Owen that then became a Owenite colony |
| United Order | Jackson County, Missouri, [1] Ohio, Utah | Joseph Smith | 1832 | 1874 | Based on the Law of Consecration, a revelation from Joseph Smith who was the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Mormonism |
| New Philadelphia Colony | Pennsylvania | Bernhard Müller [2] | 1832 | 1833 | A libertarian socialist community |
| Oberlin Colony | Ohio | John J. Shipherd and 8 immigrant families [2] | 1833 | 1843 | Community based on Communal ownership of property [2] |
| 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 [3] | Massachusetts | Adin Ballou | 1842 | 1868 | A community based on "Practical Christianity", which included ideas such as temperance, abolitionism, Women's rights, spiritualism and education. [4] |
| 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 [5] | Wisconsin | Albert Brisbane [6] | 1844 | 1850 | A Fourier Society community. [5] |
| Clermont Phalanx | Ohio | Followers of Charles Fourier | 1844 | 1845 | A Fourier Society community. |
| Prairie Home Community | Ohio | John O. Wattles [2] Valentine Nicholson [2] | 1844 | 1845 | A Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform community. |
| Fruit Hills | Ohio | Orson S. Murray [2] | 1845 | 1852 | A community based on Owenism and anarchism. [2] Maintained close contact with the Kristeen and Grand Prairie Communities. |
| Kristeen Community | Indiana | Charles Mowland [2] | 1845 | 1847 | Founded by Charles Mowland and others who had previously been associated with the Prairie Home Community. [2] 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 [2] | 1846 | 1848 | A Fourier Society community. |
| Utopia | Ohio | Josiah Warren | 1847 | 1876 | Decentralized community based on equitable commerce. [7] |
| 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 | Egalitarian communities based on the French utopian movement founded by Cabet, after his followers emigrated to the US. |
| Amana Colonies | Iowa | 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. |
| Modern Times | New York | Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews | 1851 | 1864 | Founded upon individual sovereignty and equitable commerce. |
| Raritan Bay Union | New Jersey | Marcus Spring Rebecca Buffum | 1853 | 1858 | A Fourier Society community. [2] |
| Aurora Colony | Oregon | William Keil | 1853 | 1883 | Christian utopian community |
| Free Lovers at Davis House | Ohio | Francis Barry [6] | 1854 | 1858 | A community based on Free love and spiritualism. [6] |
| Reunion Colony | Texas | Victor P. Considerant | 1855 | 1869 | A utopian socialism community. |
| Octagon City | Kansas | Henry S. Clubb Charles DeWolfe John McLaurin | 1856 | 1857 | Originally built as a vegetarian colony. |
| Workingmen's Co-operative Colony (Llewellyn Castle) [8] | Kansas | followers of James Bronterre O'Brien | 1869 | 1874 | A community based on the political reform philosophy of Chartist James Bronterre O'Brien. |
| Silkville | Kansas | Ernest de Boissière | 1869 | 1892 | Sericulture farm in Kansas that was founded on Fourierist principles. Later shifted away from Fourierism before its collapse. |
| Zion Valley | Kansas | William Bickerton | 1875 | 1879 | Bickertonite Mormon religious colony that secularized in 1879 to become the town of St. John, Kansas. [9] |
| Danish Socialist Colony [10] | Kansas | Louis Pio | 1877 | 1877 | A utopian socialist community |
| Rugby | Tennessee | Thomas Hughes | 1880 | 1887 | A community based on Christian socialism. |
| Am Olam | Across the US | Mania Bakl and Moses Herder | 1881 | Most disbanded by the 1890s | Jewish social movement that sought to create agricultural communities in America. [11] |
| 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. |
| Ruskin Colony | Tennessee | Julius Wayland | 1894 | 1899 | Attempt to create a co-operative communal movement. |
| Altruria | California | Edward Byron Payne | 1894 | 1896 | Christian socialist colony inspired by the novel A Traveler from Altruria. |
| Koreshan Unity | Estero, Florida | Cyrus Teed | 1894 | Last new member admitted in 1940 (died 1982) | Believed in Teed as a Messiah named Koresh , entered heavy decline after Teed's death in 1908. [12] [13] |
| 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 | Decommmunalized, city remains extant | Established following the Panic of 1893. Originally called Piñon. [14] [15] |
| Name | Location | Founder | Founding date | Ending date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arden Village | Delaware | Frank Stephens William Lightfoot 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. |
| Holy City | California | William E. Riker | 1919 | 1959 | Founded by a sect that promoted celibacy, temperance and a segregationist interpretation of Christianity. |
| Druid Heights | California | Elsa Gidlow Isabel Quallo Roger Somers | 1954 | 1987 | Bohemian community |
| East Wind Community | Ozark County, Missouri | Kat Kinkade | 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. [16] |
| The Farm | Lewis County, Tennessee | Stephen Gaskin | 1971 | present | Buddhist-inspired Hippie vegetarian community. De-collectivized in 1983. |
| Free Acres | New Jersey | Bolton Hall | 1910 | present | Georgist community |
| Freeland Association | Washington | Dissident members of the Equality Colony | 1900 | 1906 [6] | A socialist commune. The first settlers dissident members of the nearby Equality Colony. [17] While the Freeland Association dissolved in 1906 [6] the census-designated place (CDP) of Freeland, Washington continues to exist. |
| Post | Texas | C.W. Post | 1907 | now Post, Texas | |
| Padanaram Settlement | Indiana | Daniel Wright | 1966 | currently active | Christian fundamentalist commune in rural Indiana |
| Llano del Rio | California | Job Harriman | 1914 | 1918 | Unbuilt project by architect and planner Alice Constance Austin with strong emphasis on shared domestic work |
| New Llano | Louisiana | Job Harriman | 1917 | 1937 | Founded by Job Harriman & other members of the California Llano del Rio colony who relocated to Louisiana. |
| Twin Oaks | Virginia | Kat Kinkade, others | 1967 | currently active | Originally a behaviourist utopian society based on the novel Walden Two; eventually becoming an egalitarian commune. |
| Acorn Community Farm | Virginia | Ira Wallace | 1993 | currently active | egalitarian commune; branched off of Twin Oaks. |
| Kerista Commune | New York ("Old Tribe") San Francisco ("New Tribe") | John Peltz "Bro Jud" Presmont | 1956 (Old Tribe) 1971 (New Tribe) | 1991 | Polyamorous new religious movement with communal ownership and a polyfidelitous nightly sleeping schedule. |
A utopia typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, which describes a fictional island society in the New World.
Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of science fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels combine both genres, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction.
Cyrus Reed Teed was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned pseudoscientific religious leader and self-proclaimed messiah. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Teed took on the name Koresh and proposed a new set of scientific and religious ideas which he called Koreshanity, including the belief in the existence of a concave, or "cellular", Hollow Earth cosmology positing that the sky, humanity, and the surface of the Earth exist on the inside of a universe-encompassing sphere.
Hopedale is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located 25 miles southwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. With origins as a Christian utopian community, the town was later home to Draper Corporation, a large loom manufacturer throughout the 20th century until its closure in 1980. Today, Hopedale has become a bedroom community for professionals working in Greater Boston and is home to highly ranked public schools. The population was 6,017 as of the 2020 census.
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Looking Backward: 2000–1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by the American journalist and writer Edward Bellamy first published in 1888.
The Koreshan Unity was a communal utopia formed by Cyrus Teed, a distant relative of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Koreshans followed Teed's beliefs, called Koreshanity, and he was regarded by his adherents as "the new Messiah now in the World". After moving from New York to Illinois, the group eventually settled in Estero, Florida. The last person to officially admit membership to the Koreshans died in 1982.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is an American economist who is a professor of business at Harvard Business School. She co-founded the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative and served as Director and Founding Chair from 2008 to 2018. She was the top-ranking woman—No. 11 overall—in a 2002 study of Top Business Intellectuals by citation in several sources. She was named one of the "50 most powerful women in Boston" by Boston Magazine and named one of "125 women who changed our world" over the past 125 years by Good Housekeeping magazine in May 2010.
James Whittaker was the second leader of the Shakers.
Altruria was a short-lived utopian commune in Sonoma County, California, based on Christian socialist principles and inspired by William Dean Howells's 1894 novel, A Traveler from Altruria.
The Hopedale Community was founded in Milford, Massachusetts, in 1843 by Adin Ballou. He and his followers purchased 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land on which they built homes for the community members, chapels and the factories for which the company was initially formed. The area was later split from Milford and became the town of Hopedale, Massachusetts.
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The American Union of Associationists (AUA) was a national organization of supporters of the economic ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837) in the United States of America. Organized in 1846 in New York City as a federation of independent local Fourierist groups, the AUA published a weekly magazine called The Harbinger and published more than 70 books and pamphlets, which helped it to enjoy a brief moment of influence spreading the ideas of communitarianism to a circle of leading intellectuals.
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Mary Sargeant Gove Nichols, also known by her pen name Mary Orme, was an American women's rights and health reform advocate, hydrotherapist, vegetarian and writer.
The Society for Utopian Studies is a North American interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms, with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias.
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