I’ll admit straight out that I know only a little bit about New Harmony’s history. Like every lifelong Hoosier I learned in the fourth grade about the 1810s-20s utopian experiments here. The first experiment, the Harmony Society communal religious sect, founded the town in 1814. Robert Owen bought the town in 1825 and tried again to build utopia around cooperative principles but after just two years he threw in the towel.
I suppose these log cabins represent the Harmony Society era. I have no idea if these are original or not but I’d guess not.
Several brick and frame houses of the Harmonist and Owenite eras do survive. This white house, the c.1822 Lenz house, is from the Harmonist period. I thought surely I’d photographed it in good light, but this sunset photo is the only one I appear to have. Part of the very modern New Harmony Welcome Center is in the photo at left.
It’s not clear to me at all which brick buildings are Harmonist and which are Owenite, but the downtown district is full of them.
I wish I’d backed way up to bring the building below entirely into the frame, because I believe now this was one of the Owenite adult dormitories.
I gather that in the post-Owenite years, New Harmony tried to continue to lead in social and scientific concerns. It’s all fascinating, really, but more than I intend to cover here — check out the town’s Wikipedia page for a thumbnail.
I just want to show you pretty house pictures. I love an old house! This is the one we stayed in, the c. 1860 Orchard House, part of the New Harmony Inn. We had the place to ourselves for our long weekend. I’ll share interior photos in an upcoming post.
Of all the other older houses in New Harmony this one’s facade appeals to me most. I love its porch!
Many of the older homes are typical of other Indiana places.
I’m drawn to Victorians as I pass them on the street, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in one. They’re too fussy for me to look at every day.
I couldn’t tell you the first thing about this house’s architectural style, but it sure has lots of interesting details.
Finally, a Federal style house.
As we pedaled our bikes around New Harmony we did see some newer homes, primarily in styles popular in the 1950s and 1960s. On the main drag I noticed at least one house that was probably no older than 1980. But for the most part, living in New Harmony means living in an older home.
To get Down the Road in your inbox or reader six days a week, click here to subscribe!
To get my newsletter with previews of what I’m working on, click here to subscribe!
It looks like a cool place. I presume your stay did not involve your Mrs getting fresh eggs out from under chickens while you split some wood for the cooking fire?
No, that package cost extra.
it is rare to have in such good condition (I speak of the white wooden house) buildings of the 1822’s. Would it be original?
I think that just like the building in which you lived and which dates from 1860, it has been renovated.
It’s interesting all this story for me (I’m in Paris (FRANCE))
I don’t know the history of this building but I feel certain that it has had a combination of maintenance and restoration efforts over the years.
thank you. Maybe I would find additional information on the internet
The Ownens did not build many buildings. To disorganized. The Harmonite/Rappits built your first pictured house(with white clap board) These were timber framed and they built many of them, that were identical and were kind of massed produced. Don Blair discovered this and wrote about it in the 1950s. There are still several of these in town and most are privately owned, except the Fauntleroy House. They were originally built for the existing married couples. The single folks lived in the dorms. William McClure lived in the Farther Rapp house. McClure was part of the “Boat Load of Knowledge” they were Philadelphia enlighten scientist who floated down the Ohio to be part of Owen’s new social experiment. Robert Dale Owen wrote a diary about this. I have an electronic copy of this that I could send. McClure would do many things including establishing over 30 libraries around the mid-west, create what would become the National Geological Survey and contribute to what would become the Smithsonian.
Fascinating! There’s a wealth of history here to be sure. Not surprising that the Owenites weren’t very organized and the Rappites did most of the early building.
Jim, this seems to be an interesting location. Where there many of those sects around there, at that time?
I don’t know if there were any other Harmony Society sects. But given the promise of religious freedom in the United States a lot of different sects were formed here, or people left other countries to come here to practice their religion as they wanted.
Wow! Some gems. Thanks
All sorts of great stuff to see in the nooks and crannies of the US!
hah! I do the same thing on vacation, love to walk around and take pictures of interesting and beautiful homes, thanks for sharing!
It’s fun!
I hadn’t heard of any of this before. My husband is from Indiana, I wonder if he knows about it. The pictures are pretty amazing! As are all those houses
I think the farther north you grew up in IN, the less likely you are to know about NH. This town is tucked waaaaaaay in a little cranny in the state’s southwesternmost county.
Older homes and quite a selection of different styles. That type of variation is a feature that would appeal to me if I was living in this area.
If there were work for me to do in NH it would be a charming off-grid place to live!