Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and EducationFelton, 124 or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education,Rose, 140 was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s. It was founded by former Unitarian minister George Ripley and his wife Sophia Ripley at the Ellis Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts (nine miles outside of downtown Boston), in 1841 and was inspired in part by the ideals of transcendentalism, a religious and cultural philosophy based in New England. Founded as a joint stock company, it promised its participants a portion of the farm's profits in exchange for an equal share of the work. Brook Farmers believed that by sharing the workload, they would have ample time for leisure and intellectual pursuits.
Life on Brook Farm was based on balancing labor and leisure while working together for the community's benefit. Each member could choose whatever work they found most appealing and all were paid equally, including women. Revenue came from farming and from selling handmade products like clothing, as well as fees paid by the farm's many visitors. The main source of income was the school, which was overseen by Mrs. Ripley. A preschool, primary school, and a college preparatory school attracted children internationally and each child was charged for an education. Adult education was also offered.
The community was never financially stable and had difficulty profiting from its agricultural pursuits. By 1844, the Brook Farmers adopted a societal model based on the socialist concepts of Charles Fourier and began publishing The Harbinger as an unofficial journal promoting Fourierism. Following his vision, the community began building an ambitious structure called the Phalanstery. When the uninsured building burned down, the community was financially devastated and never recovered. It was fully closed by 1847. Despite the commune's failure, many Brook Farmers looked back on their experience favorably. The commune's critics included Charles Lane, founder of another utopian community, Fruitlands. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a founding member of Brook Farm, though not a strong adherent of the community's ideals. He later fictionalized his experience in his novel The Blithedale Romance (1852).
After Brook Farm closed, the property was operated for most of the next 130 years by a Lutheran organization, first as an orphanage, and then a treatment center and school. Fire destroyed the Transcendentalists' buildings over the years. In 1988, the State of Massachusetts acquired of the farm, which is now operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation as a historic site. Brook Farm was one of Massachusetts's first sites to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and be designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1977, the Boston Landmarks Commission designated Brook Farm a Boston Landmark, the city's highest recognition for historic sites.Brook Farm Study Report from Boston Landmarks Commission, City of Boston
History
Planning and background
In October 1840, George Ripley announced to the Transcendental Club that he was planning to form a Utopian community.Packer, 133 Brook Farm, as it would be called, was based on the ideals of Transcendentalism; its founders believed that by pooling labor they could sustain the community and still have time for literary and scientific pursuits. The experiment was meant to serve as an example for the rest of the world, based on the principles of "industry without drudgery, and true equality without its vulgarity".McFarland, 83 At Brook Farm, as in other communities, physical labor was perceived as a condition of mental well-being and health. Brook Farm was one of at least 80 communal experiments active in the United States in the 1840s, though it was the first to be secular.Delano, 52 Ripley believed his experiment would be a model for the rest of society. He predicted: "If wisely executed, it will be a light over this country and this age. If not the sunrise, it will be the morning star." As more interested people began to take part in planning, Ripley relocated meetings from his home to the West Street bookshop operated by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.Marshall, 398
Beginnings Ripley and his wife Sophia formed a joint stock company in 1841 along with 10 other investors.Hankins, 34 He sold shares of the company for $500 with a promise of 5% of the profits to each investor. Shareholders were also allowed a single vote in decision-making and several held director positions. The Ripleys chose to begin their experiment at a dairy farm owned by Charles and Maria Mayo Ellis in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, near the home of Theodore Parker.Delano, 39 They began raising money, including holding a meeting at Peabody's bookshop to raise $10,000 for the farm's purchase.Marshall, 415 The site was eventually purchased on October 11, 1841, for $10,500,Delano, 71 though participants began moving in as early as April.Marshall, 407 The farm about from Boston was described in a pamphlet as a "place of great natural beauty, combining a convenient nearness to the city with a degree of retirement and freedom from unfavorable influences unusual even in the country". The purchase also covered a neighboring Keith farm, about , "consisting altogether of a farm with dwelling house, barn, and outbuildings thereon situated".
The first major public notice of the community was published in August 1841. "The Community at West Roxbury, Mass." was likely written by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.Delano, 63 Though they began with 10 investors, eventually 32 people became Brook Farmers.Rose, 132 Writer and editor Margaret Fuller was invited to Brook FarmGura, 156 and, though she never officially joined the community, was a frequent visitor, often spending New Year's Eve there.Blanchard, Paula. Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987: 187. Ripley received many applications to join the community, especially from people who had little money or were in poor health, but full-fledged membership was granted only to those who could afford a $500 share of the joint stock company.Packer, 155
One of Brook Farm's founders was author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne did not particularly agree with the experiment's ideals, hoping only that it would help him raise enough money to begin his life with his wife-to-be, Sophia Peabody. She considered moving there as well and even visited in May 1841, though Hawthorne sent her away.Marshall, 408–409 Ripley was aware of Hawthorne's motivations, and tried to convince him to get involved more fully by appointing him as one of four trustees, specifically overseeing "Direction of Finance". After requesting his initial investment returned, Hawthorne resigned from Brook Farm on October 17, 1842.Delano, 97 He wrote of his displeasure with the community: "even my Custom House experience was not such a thraldom and weariness; my mind and heart were freer ...Thank God, my soul is not utterly buried under a dung-heap."Marshall, 417
Fourier inspiration
In the late 1830s, Ripley became increasingly engaged in "Associationism", an early socialist movement based on the work of Charles Fourier. Horace Greeley, a New York newspaper editor, and others began to pressure Brook Farm to follow more closely the pattern of FourierHankins, 35 at a time when the community was struggling to be self-sufficient. Albert Brisbane, whose book The Social Destiny of Man (1840) had inspired Ripley,Felton, 123 paid Greeley $500 for permission to publish a front-page column in the New York Tribune that ran in several parts from March 1842 to September 1843. Brisbane argued in the series, titled "Association: or, Principles of a True Organization of Society", that Fourier's theories could be applied in the United States. He published similar articles in 1842 in The Dial, the journal of the Transcendentalists.Delano, 91 Fourier's societal vision included elaborate plans for specific structures and highly organized roles for its members. He called his system for an ideal community a "Phalanx".Delano, 90
To meet this vision, now under the name "Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education", Brook Farmers committed themselves to constructing an ambitious communal building known as the Phalanstery. Construction began in the summer of 1844. The structure would accommodate 14 families and single people as well. It was planned to be and include, as Ripley wrote, "a large and commodious kitchen, a dining-hall capable of seating from three to four hundred persons, two public saloons, and a spacious hall or lecture room".Delano, 255
Ripley and two associates created a new constitution for Brook Farm in 1844, beginning the experiment's attempts to follow Fourier's Phalanx system.Packer, 157 Many Brook Farmers supported the transition; at a dinner in honor of Fourier's birthday, one member of the group proposed a toast to "Fourier, the second coming of Christ".Packer, 158 Others did not share that enthusiasm, and some left the commune. One of those who left was Isaac Hecker, who converted to Catholicism and went on to become the founder of the first American-based order of priests, the Paulist Fathers, in 1858.Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007: 300–301. In particular, many Brook Farmers thought the new model was too rigid and structured and too different from the carefree aspects that had attracted them.Felton, 127 Both supporters and detractors called the early part of Brook Farm's history the "Transcendental days". Ripley himself became a celebrity proponent of Fourierism and organized conventions throughout New England to discuss the community.Crowe, 170
In the last few months of 1844, Brook Farmers were offered the chance to take over two Associationism-inspired publications, Brisbane's The Phalanx and John Allen's The Social Reformer. Four printers were part of Brook Farm at the time and members of the community believed it would elevate their status as leaders of the movement, as well as provide additional income.Delano, 190–191 Ultimately, the Brook Farmers published a new journal combining the two, The Harbinger. The journal's first issue was published on June 14, 1845, and it was continuously printed, originally weekly, until October 1847, when it relocated to New York City, still under the oversight of Ripley and fellow Brook Farmer Charles Anderson Dana.Delano, 217 Naming the publication turned out to be a difficult task. Parke Godwin offered advice when it was suggested to keep the name The Phalanx:
Decline and dissolution Brook Farm began to decline rapidly after its restructuring. In October 1844, Orestes Brownson visited the site and sensed that "the atmosphere of the place is horrible".Delano, 192 To save money, "retrenchments", or sacrifices, were called for, particularly at the dinner table.Packer, 160 Meat, coffee, tea, and butter were no longer offered, though it was agreed that a separate table with meat be allowed in December 1844. That Thanksgiving, a neighbor donated a turkey.Packer, 161 Many Brook Farmers applied for exceptions to these rules and soon it was agreed that "members of the Association who sit at the meat table shall be charged extra for their board".Delano, 193 Life on Brook Farm was further worsened by an outbreak of smallpox in November 1845; though no one died, 26 Brook Farmers were infected. Ripley attempted to quell the financial difficulties by negotiating with creditors and stockholders, who agreed to cancel $7,000 of debt.Crowe, 187