List of American utopian communities

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A wide range of utopian intentional communities were founded across US since the 1700s. Several of them are active in the present day.

Harmonites dominated in the early 1800s.

Secular utopian socialism in the US during the 19th century included adherents of Owenism of the 1820s, Fourierism (American Union of Associationists) (1843–1850), Icarianism (1848–1898), and Bellamyism of the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth (1889–1896).

As well, several anarchist communities were established in the U.S. These included Home, Washington (founded in 1898) and the Socialist Community of Modern Times, founded in New York in 1851.

Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

[edit]
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Name Location Founder Founding date Ending date Notes
Province of Carolina (British Colony of Carolina) Carolina 1670 1711-1729 Chartered as a restoration colony, it was planned as a utopian society with an integrated physical, economic and social design. Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, with the assistance of his secretary, the philosopher John Locke, drafted the Grand Model for the Province of Carolina, Carolina's constitution, which was influenced by the utopian aspirations of James Harrington. Settlers were promised religious freedom and free land.[1] Unrest led to Cary's rebellion in 1711. Became a royal colony in 1729.
Province of Pennsylvania (British colony of Pennsylvania) Pennsylvania William Penn 1681 Chartered as a restoration colony. Inspired by the writings of James Harrington. Planned as a utopian society with an integrated physical, economic and social design
Ephrata Cloister AKA Ephrata Community Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Johann Conrad Beissel 1732 1934 Founded as a monastic religious community. Restructured as a both-gender community in 1814. Branches were established at other locations, of which two are said to still exist today.[2]
Province of Georgia (British colony of Georgia) Georgia General James Oglethorpe 1733 Inspired by writings of James Harrington. Oglethorpe planned the colony to be a utopian society with an integrated physical, economic and social design. Liquor and slavery were prohibited. "Agrarian equality" in which land was allocated equally. Acquisition of land through purchase or inheritance was prohibited. The plan was an early step toward the yeoman republic later envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. Prohibitions against liquor, slavery and private land ownership were lifted in 1749 and 1751,[3] fundamentally ending Georgia's utopian experiment.

Nineteenth century

[edit]
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Name Location Founder Founding date Ending date Notes
Harmony Pennsylvania George Rapp 1805 1814 A Harmonites village. The Harmony Society is a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785.
New Harmony, Indiana Indiana George Rapp 1814 1824 A Harmonites village. Colonists were formerly living in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Moved out to Old Economy Village. Sold the property to Robert Owen who himself founded a short-lived utopian settlement there.
Zoar Ohio Joseph Bimeler 1817 1898 Founded by German religious separatists who wanted religious freedom in America. Prosperous by the 1890s when it was one of the three strongest communistic societies in the U.S.[4]
Old Economy Village Pennsylvania George Rapp 1824 1906 (last leaders died in 1951) A Harmonites village. Colonists formerly lived in Harmony and New Harmony.
New Harmony Indiana Robert Owen 1825 1829 Former Harmonite village bought by British reformer Robert Owen. It then became a short-lived Owenite colony. Josiah Warren formed his anarchist beliefs from his experience there.
Nashoba Tennessee Frances Wright 1825 1828 An abolitionist, free-love community inspired by New Harmony, Indiana. (LEP). History covered in 1963 book Nashoba written by Edd Winfield Parks.
United Order Jackson County, Missouri,[5]
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[6] 1832 1833 A libertarian socialist community
Oberlin Colony Ohio John J. Shipherd and 8 immigrant families[6] 1833 1843 Community based on Communal ownership of property[6]
Brook Farm (Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education) Massachusetts George Ripley
Sophia Ripley 		1841 1846 A Transcendent community. Transcendentalism is based on belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature and on benefits of being truly "self-reliant". Under influence of Albert Brisbane, it adopted Fourierist principles in 1844.
North American Phalanx New Jersey Charles Sears 1841 1856 A Fourier Society community. The Fourier Society is based on the ideas of French philosopher Charles Fourier. Longest-lasting of the 30 or so Fourierist communities in the U.S.
Northampton Association of Education and Industry (NAEI) (sometimes called "The Community") Florence, Northampton, Massachusetts Samuel Hill 1842 1846 Abolitionist community. Owned some 500 acres, a silk factory and a sawmill. Workers did not get a wage but a profit share.[7] (see Clark, Christopher, The Communitarian Moment: The Radical Challenge of the Northampton Association. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995)
Hopedale Community[8] Massachusetts Adin Ballou 1842 1868 A Fourierist community based on "Practical Christianity", which included ideas such as temperance, abolitionism, Women's rights, spiritualism and education.[9]
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, based on Fourierist principles at least at first.
Sodus Bay Phalanx New York Sodus Bay Fourierists 1844 1846 A Fourierist community.
Wisconsin Phalanx[10] Wisconsin Albert Brisbane[11] 1844 1850 A Fourierist community.[10] One of the longest-lived phalanxes of the 1840s Fourierist boom in the U.S.
Clermont Phalanx Ohio Followers of Charles Fourier 1844 1845 A Fourierist community. replaced by Spiritualist community. later became anarchist society.
Prairie Home Community (also known as "Grand Prairie Community") Ohio John O. Wattles[6]
Valentine Nicholson[6] 		1844 1845 A Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform community. Ascribed to Fourierist principles.
Alphadelphia Association Kalamazoo County, Michigan Reverend Richard Thornton, Reverend James Billings, Dr. H. R. Schetterly 1844 1848 Fourierist community. Published commune's newspaper, The Alphadelphia Tocsin
Fruit Hills Ohio Orson S. Murray[6] 1845 1852 A community based on Owenism and anarchism.[6] Maintained close contact with the Kristeen and Grand Prairie Communities.
Kristeen Community Indiana Charles Mowland[6] 1845 1847 Founded by Charles Mowland and others who had previously been associated with the Prairie Home Community.[6] 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 Six Fourierist families[6] 1846 1848 A Fourierist community.
Utopia Ohio Josiah Warren 1847 1876 Decentralized community based on equitable commerce or mutualism.[12] replaced a Spiritualist community that in turn had replaced a Fourierist 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 Nauvoo, Icaria, etc. Louisiana, Texas,
Nauvoo, Illinois,
, Corning, Iowa, Cheltenham, Missouri, Cloverdale, California 		Étienne Cabet 1848 1898 Egalitarian communities based on the French utopian movement founded by Cabet, after his followers emigrated to the US.[13][14]
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. Prosperous by the 1890s when it was one of the three strongest communistic societies in the U.S.[15] The communal system continued until 1932.
Modern Times Brentwood, New York Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews 1851 1864 Founded upon individual sovereignty, equitable commerce and mutualism.
Raritan Bay Union New Jersey Marcus Spring
Rebecca Buffum 		1853 1858 A Fourierist community.[6]
Aurora Colony Oregon William Keil 1853 1883 Christian utopian community
Free Lovers at Davis House Berlin Heights, Erie County, Ohio Francis Barry[11] 1854 1858 A community based on Free love and spiritualism.[11]
Reunion Colony Dallas, Texas Victor P. Considerant 1855 1869 A Fourierist community.
Octagon City Kansas Henry S. Clubb
Charles DeWolfe
John McLaurin 		1856 1857 Originally built as a vegetarian colony north of the present-day site of Chanute, Kansas near Vegetarian Creek, a tributary of the Neosho River
Workingmen's Co-operative Colony (Llewellyn Castle)[16] 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.
Progressive Colony, near Cedar Vale Kansas William Frey 1871 1879 A Russian communist colony with a mixture of atheism and liberal Christianity. Fell apart due to the domineering and sometimes cruel manner of its founder.[17]
Zion Valley Kansas William Bickerton 1875 1879 Bickertonite Mormon religious colony that secularized in 1879 to become the town of St. John, Kansas.[18]
Danish Socialist Colony[19] Kansas Louis Pio 1877 1877 A utopian socialist community near Hays
Esperanza Kansas unknown ? 1879 A utopian communist community founded by settlers from Missouri. [20]
Rugby Tennessee Thomas Hughes (author of bestseller Tom Brown’s School Days (1857)); London and Boston Boards of Aid to Land Ownership 1880 1887 A community based on Christian socialism. “Associations” (joint-stock corporations) operated general store and other businesses. A tomato cannery and Rugby Pottery Company operated as joint-stock enterprise but failed financially. Hughes left scene in 1887, $250,000 poorer.[21]
Am Olam Oregon and various locations across the US Mania Bakl and Moses Herder 1881 Mostly disbanded by the 1890s Jewish social movement that sought to create agricultural communities in America.[22]
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.
Kaweah Colony Sierra Nevada range, California 1886 1892 Inspired by the scientific socialism of Laurence Gronlund and Edward Bellamy. Livelihood based on logging of giant sequoia trees. This ended with creation of the Sequoia National Park. "Squatter's Cabin" is last surviving structure of the colony.[23]
Ruskin Colony Dickson County, Tennessee Julius Wayland 1894 1899 Attempt to create a co-operative communal movement. Principles of the community were inspired by Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward (1886). Communal dining hall and laundry, housing, medical care, education, equality, and job security. success hampered by no clear business plan. Eventually some members forced sale of land and disbandment.[24]
Altruria California Edward Byron Payne 1894 1896 Christian socialist colony inspired by William Dean Howells' 1884 novel A Traveler from Altruria.
Fairhope Single Tax Corporation, Fairhope, AL Alabama Fairhope Industrial Association 1894 currently active Fairhope was first settled in 1894 by Georgists. 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.[25]
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.[26][27]
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.[28][29]
Equality Colony Skagit County, Washington Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth[citation needed] 1897 1907 Principles of the community were inspired by Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward (1886) and its sequel novel Equality (1897). In 1905 colony was divided by arrival of Alexander Horr and other adherents of Theodor Hertzka’s "Freeland" concept. Wave of arsons effectively ended the social experiment.
Bellamy Cooperative Colony Lincoln County, Oregon (on the Depai Creek 4 miles north of the county seat of Lincoln) Founded by Norwegian settlers 1897 unknown Principles of the community were inspired by Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward (1886) and its sequel novel Equality (1897).[30]
Freedom Bourbon County, Kansas G. B. De Bernardi 1897 1905 colony's economy was based on a Labor Exchange, designed to eliminate poverty and want, through the creation of a “soft” currency that served as legal tender. At the colony's warehouse, workers exchanged goods for “labor checks” redeemable for items in the warehouse.[31][32]

Twentieth century

[edit]
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
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.
Equality Colony Washington Norman W. Lermond
Ed Pelton 		1900 1907 One of the many U.S. socialist intentional communities inspired by Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward. These communities were often called Nationalist Clubs.
Freeland Association Washington Dissident members of the Equality Colony 1900 1906[11] A socialist commune. The first settlers dissident members of the nearby Equality Colony.[33] While the Freeland Association dissolved in 1906[11] the census-designated place (CDP) of Freeland, Washington continues to exist.
Helicon Home Colony New Jersey Upton Sinclair (who had funds due to his successful book The Jungle) 1907 1908 A "co-operative home". A "home colony," in which to "secure the advantage of the application of machinery to domestic processes, and incidentally to solve the problem of the management of servants."[34]
Post Post, Texas C.W. Post 1907 currently active
Free Acres New Jersey Bolton Hall 1910 currently active Georgist community
Llano del Rio California Job Harriman 1914 1918 Project designed 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.
Holy City California William E. Riker 1919 1959 Founded by a sect that promoted celibacy, temperance and a segregationist interpretation of Christianity.
Jersey Homesteads Roosevelt, New Jersey President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Benjamin Brown 1936 1939 socialist Jewish farming community formed as part of F.D.R.'s New Deal. Its history is presented in a 1983 documentary Roosevelt, New Jersey: Visions of Utopia
Druid Heights California Elsa Gidlow
Isabel Quallo
Roger Somers 		1954 1987 Bohemian and artistic community. A meeting place used by three U.S. countercultural movements -- the Beat Generation of the 1950s, the hippie movement of the 1960s, and the women's movement of the 1970s.
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.
Padanaram Settlement Indiana Daniel Wright 1966 largely privatized soon after the death of the founder in 2001 (communal businesses, school, dining hall, common purse were all discontinued) Christian fundamentalist commune in rural Indiana
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.
The Farm Lewis County, Tennessee Stephen Gaskin 1971 currently active (became a co-op in 1983) Buddhist-inspired Hippie vegetarian community. De-collectivized in 1983.
East Wind Community Ozark County, Missouri Kat Kinkade 1973 currently active A secular and democratic community in which members hold all communities assets in common.
Uranian Phalanstery and the associated First New York Gnostic Lyceum Temple Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York Richard Oviet Tyler and Dorothea Baer 1974 currently active follows the "Practice of the Eightfold Way on the Path" and exercise "Creativity in Practice of the Path". Fourierist.
Acorn Community Farm Virginia Ira Wallace 1993 currently active egalitarian commune; branched off of Twin Oaks.

See also

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Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ The American People- Creating a Nation and a Society (6th? Ed.), Pearson/Longman
  2. ^ "The Ephrata Cloister" https://www.cob-net.org/cloister.htm accessed May 29, 2025.
  3. ^ Elson, Henry W. (Henry William); Hart, Charles Henry (April 25, 1905). "History of the United States of America". New York, Pub. for the Review of reviews company by the Macmillan company; London, Macmillan & co., ltd. – via Internet Archive
  4. ^ "Communism" in Bliss et all, The Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1897), p. 312
  5. ^ Smith, Gregory (2002). "The United Order of Enoch in Independence". The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 22: 99–117. JSTOR 43200431.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Morris, James M.; Kross, Andrea L. (2009). The A to Z of Utopianism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810863354.
  7. ^ Bliss et al. Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1909), p. 838
  8. ^ Spann, Edward K. (1992). Hopedale: From Commune to Company Town, 1840-1920 (Urban life and urban landscape series ed.). Ohio: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0814205755. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  9. ^ Spann, Edward K. (1992). Hopedale: From Commune to Company Town, 1840-1920 (Urban life and urban landscape series ed.). Ohio: Ohio State University Press. p. 71. ISBN 0814205755. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  10. ^ a b McCarville, Colin (2012). "Ceresco: A Utopian Community in Ripon, Wisconsin". Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin. Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  11. ^ a b c d e Morris, James Matthew; Kross, Andrea L. (2004). Historical Dictionary of Utopianism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 108 and 111. ISBN 0810849127. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  12. ^ Martin, James J. (1970) [1953]. "The Colonial Period: Utopia and "Modern Times"". Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908. Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles Publisher. pp. 56–64. ISBN 9780879260064. OCLC 8827896.
  13. ^ Albert Shaw's 1884 book Icarias - A Chapter in the history of Communism, recounts the history of the Icarias movement and on pages 175-186, recounts history of many other intentional communities as well. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t5r78bp6f&seq=197
  14. ^ "Cabet Etienne" in Bliss et al, Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1897), p. 204 https://ia801605.us.archive.org/20/items/encyclopediofsoc00blisrich/encyclopediofsoc00blisrich.pdf
  15. ^ "Communism" in Bliss et al, The Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1897), p. 312
  16. ^ Entz, Gary R. (2013). Llewellyn Castle: A Worker's Cooperative on the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803245396.
  17. ^ https://homesteadontherange.com/2016/05/10/8-utopian-experiments-in-kansas/ accessed May 28, 2025
  18. ^ Entz, Gary R. (2006). "The Bickertonites: Schism and Reunion in a Restoration Church, 1880-1905". Journal of Mormon History: 8.
  19. ^ Miller, Kenneth E. (1972). Danish Socialism on the Kansas Prairie. Kansas State Historical Society.
  20. ^ https://homesteadontherange.com/2016/05/10/8-utopian-experiments-in-kansas/ accessed May 28, 2025
  21. ^ "Utopian communities inspired by novels" https://teachingwiththemes.com/index.php/2020/01/06/utopian-communities-inspired-by-novels/
  22. ^ "Am Olam". www.oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
  23. ^ "List of classified structures." https://web.archive.org/web/20110521210241/http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?STATE=CA&PARK=SEKI&STRUCTURE=&SORT=&RECORDNO=7
  24. ^ "Utopian communities inspired by novels" https://teachingwiththemes.com/index.php/2020/01/06/utopian-communities-inspired-by-novels/
  25. ^ Fairhope 1894-1954, The Story of a Single Tax Colony, Paul E. and Blanche R. Alyea, University of Alabama Press 1956
  26. ^ Millner, Lyn (2015). The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. p. xiii. ISBN 9780813061238.
  27. ^ Warren, M. (2023). "Florida's hollow-earth cult left behind a bizarre ghost town". floridatraveler.com. Retrieved 24 April 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ "Colorado's Utopian Colonies: Greeley and Nucla". Denver Public Library History. 2013-08-28. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  29. ^ "Frontier in Transition: A History of Southwestern Colorado (Chapter 7)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  30. ^ "Bellamy Beamings" by O.A. Tveitmoe. Published in Industrial Freedom [Edison, WA], whole no. 40 (Feb. 4, 1899), pg. 2. http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/bcc/1899/0204-tveitmoe-bellamybeamings.pdf
  31. ^ H. Roger Grant. Portrait of a Workers' Utopia: The Labor Exchange and the Freedom, Kan., Colony. https://www.kancoll.org/khq/1977/77_1_grant.htm
  32. ^ https://homesteadontherange.com/2016/05/10/8-utopian-experiments-in-kansas/ accessed May 28, 2025
  33. ^ Charles Pierce LeWarne, Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885–1915, Seattle, University of Washington State Press, 1975; pp. 114-28.
  34. ^ New York Times, July 16, 1906, p. 6 "For a Co-operative Home..." https://www.nytimes.com/1906/07/16/archives/for-a-cooperative-home-the-plan-for-a-colony-to-be-discussed-her-to.html. accessed May 17, 2025