New Harmony has become known for its many gardens, sculptures, restored historic buildings and public spaces designed for quiet contemplation and spiritual renewal. Today, residents and tourists alike enjoy the slower pace of the town’s opportunities for dining, shopping for antiques, visiting art galleries, and admiring the quaint surroundings where even the architecture pays tribute to a blend of the past and future. With the help of his partner, William Maclure of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the Owen/Maclure community introduced educational and social reforms to America. He encouraged world-renowned scientists and educators to settle in “New” Harmony. Robert Owen’s ambition was to create a perfect society through free education and the abolition of social classes and personal wealth. The Harmonists then returned to Pennsylvania to build a third town, Economy, near Pittsburgh. Led by their charismatic leader Johann Georg Rapp, they left their first American home in Harmonie, Pennsylvania, and established a second community on the western frontier of Indiana, where they acquired a much larger tract of land.ĭuring the 10 years in which they cultivated the new town of Harmonie, the Harmonists, with their strong German work ethic and devout religious rule, achieved unheard of economic success and the community became recognized as “the wonder of the west.” Slightly more than a decade later, however, they sold the town and surrounding lands to Robert Owen, a Welsh-born industrialist and philosopher, for his communitarian experiment. The first, Harmonie (1814-1825), was founded by the Harmonie Society, a group of Separatists from the German Lutheran Church. During the early part of the 19th century, New Harmony was the site of two attempts to establish Utopian communities. New Harmony, Indiana, (Population 915) is a small historic town located on the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana.
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