The Utopia of New Harmony

Along the Wabash River, New Harmony, Indiana was configured as a utopian community. Twice.

In the far southwest corner of Indiana lies a most intriguing town. New Harmony was originally built as a utopian community in the western wilderness.

Back in 1804, a self-proclaimed prophet named George Rapp convinced 800 of his German followers to emigrate to the US. They founded a town in western Pennsylvania and called it Harmony.

The Harmonists, as they were known, were a strict religious sect with a definitive date in mind for The Rapture. According to George Rapp, only his followers would be saved.

Ten years later, when the world failed to end on the predicted date, Rapp declared the town was unsuitable for redemption. A new town must be built. The whole community pulled up stakes and started again in Indiana. New Harmony was founded in 1814.

The Harmonists were a closed society and quite wealthy. They produced a variety of goods and pooled their profits. They could afford fine brick buildings and luxuries like cast iron stoves at a time when other Indiana settlers lived a bit more primitively.

After ten years in New Harmony, when another end-of-the-world prediction failed to materialize, Rapp repeated the same trick. The Harmonists moved again and built yet another town called Economy. But Rapp’s credibility was sullied and soon all his followers petered away. Fool me twice…

The abandoned town of New Harmony, void of population but rich with impressive buildings, was sold lock, stock, and barrel to Robert Owen in 1824.

Owen had his own utopian dreams, based on social reform and science. He brought in the brightest minds from every discipline to study and lecture on far ranging topics.

Owen sought to create a perfect society by rejecting private property, organized religion, and marriage. Not everybody’s cup of tea.

The biggest downfall of Owen’s utopia was his frequent absence. He took long sabbaticals to promote his ideas, leaving no one in charge of the town.

Without their leader, New Harmony’s residents fell to squabbling. Things started to ruin. Turns out that a town full of high-minded philosophers didn’t have basic skills like carpentry and masonry to keep the buildings from falling into disrepair.

Within a couple of years Owen was broke and the utopian dream of New Harmony died out completely. But the town continued to grow and thrive as a cultural center.

Today New Harmony is a serene haven of contemplative gardens, historic buildings, and long trails along the Wabash. Famously, there are two labyrinths and the Roofless Church.

The visitor center, designed by Richard Myers, is a modernist masterpiece.

New Harmony is worth a visit.  Don’t worry, they won’t ask you to join a cult!