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building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

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Utopian experiments and perspective Eden<br />

The idealization of biblical origin was followed by numerous episodes of settlement<br />

and urbanization of <strong>the</strong> wild lands. As already mentioned in previous paragraphs,<br />

America attracted a countless variety of reformers, persecuted people and fanatics.<br />

The first to search for utopia were <strong>the</strong> Huguenots, French Protestants who started<br />

to settle in America from <strong>the</strong> second half of <strong>the</strong> sixteenth century, creating<br />

communities toge<strong>the</strong>r with o<strong>the</strong>r victims of religious persecution, such as <strong>the</strong><br />

Brownists and Puritans or French Walloons.<br />

In 1741, <strong>the</strong> Moravians founded Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and o<strong>the</strong>r settlements<br />

inspired by it (Nazareth in 1742 and Lititz in 1757), all featuring a <strong>building</strong> called<br />

Gemeinhaus. In city of Bethlehem, as Reps claimed, "designed as a community<br />

center, this <strong>building</strong> also served as a church, town hall, hospice and office for church<br />

affairs. Two years later a large dormitory for single men was built, several small<br />

houses were completed, and gradually <strong>the</strong> town began to take form” 114 .<br />

The Lu<strong>the</strong>rans also began to build numerous settlements. In 1803, a group from a<br />

small dissident sect, <strong>the</strong> Harmony Society led by George Rapp (1757‐1847), founded<br />

<strong>the</strong> first Lu<strong>the</strong>ran settlement called Harmony, a simple checkerboard surrounded by<br />

5,000 acres of land in Western Pennsylvania. Later, with <strong>the</strong> arrival of new settlers,<br />

<strong>the</strong>y decided to move, after having sold <strong>the</strong> land in 1814 and founded <strong>the</strong> thriving<br />

community of New Harmony on land more suitable for agriculture along <strong>the</strong><br />

Wabash River in Indiana. However, in 1825 <strong>the</strong> Harmonists decided to sell <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

properties to Robert Owen (1771‐1858) and founded <strong>the</strong> town of Economy in<br />

Pennsylvania [Figure 57]. These three Harmonist towns are strictly linked with<br />

water, as <strong>the</strong>y were built close to rivers. From a town planning point of view, <strong>the</strong>y<br />

have no elements of particular interest. However, <strong>the</strong> unusual relationship<br />

established between architecture and <strong>the</strong> green spaces was unusual.<br />

114 REPS, John William, Town Planning in Frontier America, Princeton, University Press, 1965, p. 391<br />

(Italian translation by M. Terni, S. Magistretti, La costruzione dell’ America urbana; introduction by<br />

Francesco Dal Co, Milano: Franco Angeli, 1976, p. 323)<br />

69

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