Utopian Dream Preserving America S
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CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CRM VOLUME 24 NO. 9 2001 Preserving America s Utopian Dream U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR National Park Service Cultural Resources PUBLISHED BY THE r^/M^ + ZM^ + n VOLUME 24 NO. 9 2001 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE V/OniGnlS ISSN 1068-4999 Information for parks, federal agencies, Indian tribes, states, local governments, Preserving America's and the private sector that promotes and maintains high standards for pre serving and managing cultural resources Utopian Dream DIRECTOR Tuning In and Dropping Out—An American Tradition 3 Fran P Mainella Frank J. J. Miele ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR CULTURAL RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP Brook Farm—A 19th-century Social Experiment 4 AND PARTNERSHIPS William F. Hennessey Katherine H. Stevenson The Kaweah Colony—Utopia and Sequoia National Park 7 EDITOR Ronald M. Greenberg Thomas L. Burge, Ward Eldredge, and William C. Tweed ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dr. Cyrus Teed and the Koreshan Unity Movement 10 Janice C. McCoy Catherine Anthony Ohnemus GUEST EDITOR Thomas Hughes' "Rugby"—Utopia on the Cumberland Plateau 13 Frank J.J. Miele Karen Sweeny-Justice ADVISORS David Andrews Kennecott—Alaskan Utopia 16 Editor, NPS Sande Anderson Joan Bacharach Curator, NPS Utopia on the Wabash—The Hisrory of Preservation in New Harmony 18 Randall J. Biallas Htetorical Architect, NPS Donald E. Pitzer and Connie A. Weinzapfel John A Burns Architect, NPS Stewardship and Change in the Amana Colonies 21 Hany A. Butowsky Hstorian, NPS Rachel Franklin-Weekley Pratt Cassity Executive Director, NPS Assists in Development of Amana Itinerary 23 Natbnal Alliance of Preservatbn Commissions Muriel Crespi Cultural Anthropologist, NPS The Ephrata Cloister—Enigmatic Oasis 24 MaryCullen Kerry A. Mohn Director, Historical Services Branch Parks Canada The Moravian Experience in the New World 27 Roger E. Kelly Mark R. Barnes ArcheotagBt, NPS Antoinette J. Lee Hetorian, NPS Developing the Interpretive Plan for Oneida Community Mansion House 29 Bruce M. Moseley and Helen S. Schwartz ASSISTANT Denise M. Mayo Zoar Village State Memorial 33 Kathleen M. Fernandez Origins of the Utopian Idea 35 An electronic version of this Rustin Quaide issue of CRM can be accessed through the CRM homepage at Representing Historic Groups Outside the Mainstream—Hancock Shaker Village .. .36 <http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm>. Matthew Cooper The Preservation of Pleasant Hill 38 Diana B. Ratliff Design and Imaging McCoy Publishing Services Cover: Thomas Hughes Free Public Library, Rugby Colony Historic District, Tennessee; see article, jan@mccoypublish .com p. 13. Statements of fact and views are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect an opinion or endorsement on the part of the editors, the CRM advisors and consultants, or the National Park Service. Send articles and correspondence to the Editor, CRM, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW, Suite 350NC, Washington, DC 20240 (U.S. Postal Service) or 800 North Capitol St, NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20002 (Federal Express); ph. 202-343-3411, fax 202-343-5260; email: <[email protected]>, to subscribe and to make inquiries; <[email protected]> to submit articles. 2 CRM No 9—2001 Frank J. J. Miele Tuning In and Dropping Out An American Tradition n the 1960s, many of the so-called hip sectarian in nature, such as those run by the pies of the era heeded the call of their Shakers, the Moravians, and the Christian self-styled guru, Timothy Leary, to "turn Communists who, under the leadership of John on, tune in, and drop out" by literally Humphrey Noyes, settled the Oneida community droppinIg out of mainstream society, which they (the Oneida Community Mansion House was des regarded as corrupt and imperfect, to enter into ignated as a National Historic Landmark [NHL] communes. Such communities would be, at least in on June 23, 1965). their minds, free from corruption and imperfec Other communities were essentially secular in tion—Utopian social experiments that would shine origin, such as that established by the New England like beacons for the rest of the world to follow. Transcendentalists who attempted to set up a self- Well, they might not have expressed the intent sustaining community at Brook Farm in of their communes in exactly those terms; but Massachusetts (1841-1847; designated as an NHL many, if not most, of the participants in this flight on June 23, 1965) where it was hoped that intellec from the mainstream did believe that their commu tual pursuits would be balanced with the manual nities would serve as microcosms of the perfect soci labor necessary to perpetuate the farming commu ety. More importantly, they believed that what they nity. Likewise, the Utopian Socialists who, under were doing was something novel and unique. the influence of Robert Owen, founded the The reality is that the endeavor to at least Utopian Socialist Community of New Harmony, "tune in and drop out" is a cherished American tra Indiana (the New Harmony Historic District was dition. The roots of this movement date back to designated as an NHL on June 23, 1965). the years following the discovery of the New It should be noted that while a great deal of World, when observers in Europe became infatu emphasis is usually given to those intentional com ated with the possibilities offered by the new land, munities that emerged during the Jacksonian referring to it as the "New Eden." Sir Thomas period of American history, contemporary scholar More, in fact, believed that before the fall of man, ship has shown that the drive to create inten- all the world had been America. Elements of this tional/utopian communities was continuous and Messianic expectation could be seen in the ideology quite prolific during the post-Jacksonian period.* of the Puritans, who sailed to the shores of Members of the Communal Studies Association Massachusetts Bay with the conviction that they have been striving to identify and catalog this vast were founding the New Jerusalem, a city upon a treasure trove of offbeat Americana. But much hill which would shine like a beacon for all the remains to be done. Hence, if anything, it is hoped world to follow. that this special issue of CRM will stimulate efforts This conviction spawned a number of to identify, register, preserve, and interpret Utopian social experiments in the United States. resources associated with, as expressed by one of Their founders and participants believed that they the contributors to this issue, groups outside the could create a microcosmic model of the "perfect cultural mainstream. society," a society whose characteristics would be emulated ultimately in the larger society. Note * See, for example, Robert S. Fogarty, "American What appears on the pages that follow is an Communes, 1865-1914" Journal of American Studies exploration of the history, preservation, and inter 9 (August 1975) 146-62, and Timothy Miller, pretation of a small number of the hundreds of American Communes, 1860- 1960: A Bibliography Utopian or intentional communities that dotted the (New York: Garland Publishing, 1990). American landscape throughout its history. The Frank J. J. Miele, Ph.D., is Senior Historian, National history of these communities is as diverse and Register Programs Division, National Park Service, unique as the effort to preserve and interpret them. Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia. He is guest edi Some of the communities studied here were strictly tor of this issue of CRM.. CRM No 9—2001 3 William F. Hennessey Brook Farm A 19th-century Social Experiment rook Farm, one of the many Nature, Beauty). By 1841, theTranscendentalists Utopian communities which came met regularly at the new bookstore, already gain into being in the mid-19th cen ing fame, of Elizabeth Peabody, on West Street in tury in the United States, began downtown Boston (adjacent to today's Brattle B Book Store). It is there where the formidable in 1841 with high hopes. After six short years, it shut down, with disappointment and in debt. It Margaret Fuller held her Wednesday evening was a response to certain events of the 1830s, "Conversations"; it is there where the future of which had left not only laboring classes but intel The Dial, the Transcendentalist magazine, was lectual cliques disenchanted with the prevailing planned; and it is there where George Ripley and state of affairs, in society generally, and in one his wife Sophia met and talked with the other branch of Protestantism. communal optimists who would soon join them The unexpected financial Panic of 1837 in the countryside. had a devastating economic effect on the country, The Ripleys had summered contentedly for first on the urban laboring poor and then sweep several years at the Ellis dairy farm, in Roxbury ing on to engulf professional and salaried work (later West Roxbury), eight miles southwest of ers. Thousands were thrown out of work and Boston over rough roads. They and 18 other onto city streets, banks folded, and property had hopefuls went there in the spring of 1841, after to be sold at ruinous prices. In addition to the Ripley had finally resigned his pulpit. This small economic debacle, intellectual challenges had group wrote up an unincorporated stock com arisen in American Protestantism fermenting pany, listing 16 Articles of Agreement and since the 1820s, and surfacing gradually in Association, outlining their idealistic purposes Massachusetts pulpits. In 1838, Ralph Waldo and policies, and created The Brook Farm Emerson, to become the "Sage of Concord," had Institute for Agriculture and Education. They delivered his famous and controversial Divinity spent the next six months getting ready; in School Address at Harvard, in which he ques October they passed papers on the Ellis farm and tioned certain fundamental Christian teachings, a smaller parcel across the road (now Baker especially those centering on the scriptural stories Street), and ended up with about 200 acres of of miracles.