Fruitlands (municipality)

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Fruitlands
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark District
Historic District Contributing Property
The main house in 2009

The main house in 2009

Fruitlands (Commune) (Massachusetts)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Harvard , Massachusetts , United States
Coordinates 42 ° 30 '30.4 "  N , 71 ° 36' 43.6"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 30 '30.4 "  N , 71 ° 36' 43.6"  W.
surface acres (2  ha )
Built Late 18th century
NRHP number 74001761
Data
The NRHP added March 19, 1974
As  NHLD declared March 19, 1974
Declared as  CP May 23, 1997

Fruitlands ( German  roughly Fruchtäcker ) was a utopian agricultural commune , which in 1843 under the leadership of Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane tried unsuccessfully to support itself on the basis of transcendentalist ideas with a farm. The buildings used by it are in Harvard in the state of Massachusetts of the United States and serve as a museum. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and has been a Contributing Property of the Fruitlands Museum Historic District since 1997 . The museum and 85 hectares of surrounding land have been owned by the Trustees of Reservations since 2016 .

description

The farmhouse is typical of the late 18th century New England in its construction and appearance . From its location there is a good overview of the Nashua Valley to Mount Wachusett, 10 miles away . The building, clad with wooden planks painted red, has a simple rectangular floor plan and is two stories high. The gable roof is covered with slate . The common rooms were on the ground floor, the adults' bedrooms on the first floor, while the attic was used as a bed for the children. The rear kitchen and pantry as well as the smaller annex , originally used as a granary , were only added in the second half of the 19th century. Overall, the building is in very good condition and its appearance largely corresponds to the condition in 1843.

Historical meaning

In 1842 Bronson Alcott traveled to England to attend an experimental boarding school near London , the director of which, Charles Lane, shared many of Alcott's sometimes radical views on the education of children. They discovered a lot in common and went to America together to found a “new Eden ” that Alcott called “Fruitlands”. There he wanted to make his vision of a new, peaceful society a reality. Although transcendentalism was widespread at this time and, among other things, the Brook Farm had been operating successfully since 1841, Alcott was keen to incorporate his own ideas, which were essentially based on the fact that, in his view, imperative changes in personality were brought about through self-denial would have to.

Charles Lane bought the farmhouse and 36 acres of land to set up the Fruitlands Community with Alcott in June 1843. This should provide for itself independently of outside support by means of subsistence farming and renounce both animal products and the use of animals in agricultural work. The way of life and diet of the group was correspondingly ascetic , never exceeding 16 people and at times accommodating guests such as Henry David Thoreau , Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne . Alcott only allowed clothes made of linen and forbade all oil lamps except one, which his wife insisted on for her own use. He also banned all private property.

From the beginning, ideological conflicts showed up among the members of the community. Lane saw an "ideal" family as a social ideal that was not defined as a "family" through biological relationships, but rather through ideas and worldviews. He advocated celibacy and shared the philosophical ideas of the Shakers who had settled in the neighborhood. He also considered the ideal family to be a suitable instrument for the liberation of women, which made him one of the first advocates of women's rights . Alcott, however, remained convinced that a biological family could form a society of its own.

The differences in philosophical views increasingly paralyzed the Fruitlands community, and it became clear that Alcott's wife only attended to accommodate her husband's request. Charles Lane and other group members also came to terms less and less with Alcott's demanding and sometimes despotic manner, with which he demanded absolute austerity and self-denial. Since he had banned the use of plows because animals were required to operate them, the members of the community had to use spades to till the fields. With these limited possibilities, however, the fields did not produce sufficient yields, so that Fruitlands collapsed in the first winter and after only seven months of its existence. On January 16, 1844, the Alcotts were the last to leave the farm and move to Concord, Massachusetts .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Fruitlands  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
  2. cf. Post / Poh, p. 2.
  3. cf. Post / Poh, p. 3.
  4. cf. Post / Poh, p. 5.
  5. a b cf. Post / Poh, p. 6.