Rappite Community House - New Harmony, IN - Pre-Victorian Historic Homes on Waymarking.com

County of house: Posey County
Location of house: Church St., Rappite Community House No. 2., New Harmony

Plaque text: Marker Text:

"New Harmony is the site of two of America's great utopian communities. The first, Harmonie on the Wabash (1814-1824), was founded by the Harmony Society, a group of Separatists from the German Lutheran Church. In 1814, led by their charismatic leader Johann Georg Rapp, they left their first American home, Harmonie, PA. Indiana's lower Wabash Valley on the western frontier gave them the opportunity to acquire a much larger tract of land. In 1825, the Harmonists moved back to Pennsylvania and built the town of Economy near Pittsburgh. Robert Owen, Welsh-born industrialist and social philosopher, bought their Indiana town and the surrounding lands for his communitarian experiment." ~ New Harmony Tourism

"The singularities of the Rappite religion and philosophy need not concern us, but the fact that these fearless Germans were gifted with heroic capacity for creative work and possessed admirable talents for constructive progress-iveness does have a direct bearing on what I shall attempt to narrate.

"Becoming dissatisfied with their Pennsylvania environment the Rappites decided to move elsewhere. In 1814 George Rapp discovered the rich lands on the banks of the Wabash River and concluded, that, wilderness though it was, the beautiful tract in what is now Posey County, was the Promised Land that he and his followers needed for the ultimate success of their communal pursuits. Accordingly, he acquired some thirty thousand acres and in 1815 the whole colony left the Keystone State, migrated to their new domain and forthwith began the building of a new town which they named in memory of their old home in Pennsylvania." ~ Indiana Magazine of History

"Other notable Harmonist sites and structures include the Rope Walk, part of the original 1,100-foot walk used to stretch, dry, and twist hemp into rope and the Harmonist Labyrinth, replanted and rebuilt in 1939 near its original site. Community House Number 2, a three-story, brick dormitory for single Harmonist members built in 1822, was later used by the Owenites for community activities, including a school. Thrall’s Opera House/Community House Number 4, built in 1824, is a two-story Harmonist brick community house with Romanesque Revival alterations. Originally a Harmonist dormitory, the Owenites used it as a family dwelling, warehouse, and a place for public events. Renamed Union Hall in 1859, the building was used as a theater for a local acting company. After Eugene Thrall became its sole owner in 1888, the building was renamed Thrall’s Opera House. In the early 20th century it was used as a nickelodeon movie house and later a gas station/garage before it was restored as a Victorian-era theater. The restored Rapp-Owen Granary, a five-story, brick, sandstone, and wood structure completed in 1818, is “the largest granary of its type built by German craftsmen in the United States” and “served as David Dale Owen’s laboratory from 1843 to 1859.” (Owen was appointed Indiana's first state geologist in 1837.) Operated as a wool mill and a cornmeal mill, the structure was reconverted to a granary and placed on the National Register in 1965. After a two-year restoration from 1997 to 1999, the granary serves as a museum and meeting facility" ~ Wikipedia