Communal Studies Association, 2010 New Harmony, Indiana ...

The presenter will explain how the Historic and Architectural Review Board (HARB) was formed in Harmonyalong with a short history of the organization, the controversy it caused, and how she personally becameinvolved. Then, further explanation will include legal issues involved, some failures and some achievements,and finally a hopeful future for the HARB and Harmony Borough.Delsa White's association with intentional communities started at an early age. Her association with theHarmony, Pennsylvania HARB began shortly after she and her husband bought and restored the FrederickRapp House in l992.“Stillness at Last: Preservation of the Built Environment at Sabbathday Lake”Adam Krakowski, University of VermontThis presentation takes a close look at the past, current, and future preservation issues on the uniquearchitecture at the last remaining Shaker village at Sabbathday Lake, New Gloucester, Maine. The focus is thelast one hundred years, a time where the community added and removed many structures, and its biggest assetalso became its biggest disruption. Route 26 is a historic roadway that traveled directly through the center ofthe Shaker community. This roadway was ultimately moved in 2003 due to harm from vehicles traveling merelyfeet from the historic structures. The work also touches on the creation of structures and the removal of otherswhile addressing previous scholarship on these structures from primary sources within the community. Whilethe community finally has stillness and peace from a hundred years of constant automobile travel, there arepreservation issues that remain.Adam Krakowski is a graduate student in the Historic Preservation program at the University of Vermont. Beforestarting his studies at the University of Vermont, he worked as a conservator on early American and Englishdecorative arts, learning traditional methods of seat weaving, woodworking, and gilding. His research interestsare in both the history and preservation issues within the Shaker communities of the northeast and the builtenvironment of costal New England. Adam resides in Montpelier, Vermont, with his fiancée Noella.“Rediscovery and Demolition of 1811 Harmonist Eidenau Mill Dam at Harmony, Pennsylvania”John Ruch, Historic HarmonyAfter founding Harmony, PA, at the end of 1804 and organizing as a commune, the Harmony Society built twowater-powered grist mills and another to produce vegetable oils, the latter then expanded with grist and otheroperations. A grist mill it had purchased was sold as part of an 1810 land deal with the founder of neighboringZelienople. The first mill building, constructed of hewn logs in 1805, is the lone survivor -- as a private residence-- of all the mills erected in the society's three communities. Until shortly before its July 2009 removal, virtuallyno one had any idea that the wood and stone crib dam of the Harmonists' 1811 grist mill, which had beendemolished in 1914, remained essentially intact in the Connoquenessing Creek. Artifacts of the Eidenau milland its long-hidden dam were retrieved during the dam's removal.John S. Ruch has lead history and preservation organizations for nearly four decades. John is President ofHistoric Harmony, the volunteer, nonprofit historical society that operates the eight-property Harmony Museum,Harmony, PA. He is a board member of Friends of Old Economy Village and was a founder of WesternPennsylvania Museum Council. He is a trustee of the preservation group that owns a 1758 Quaker meetinghouse in New Jersey, where he formerly chaired a township landmarks board, was local historical society vicepresident and a founder of a statewide landmarks commissioners organization. He retired from PPG Industriesas manager of corporate public information.Session 5-ASpaces of Collaboration: Toward Communities of CreativityAnd Sustainability (Atheneum/Visitors Center)22