jan 1, 1841 - Brook Farm is founded

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Brook Farm or Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education (1841-1847) - Brook Farm was founded by former minister George Ripley and his wife, Sophia, as a joint stock company. It promised its participants a portion of the profits in exchange for performing an equal share work. They believed that shared workload would ensure ample time for leisure and intellectual activities. The community was never financially stable from their agriculture and tried following socialist theory. They began building an ambitious structure called the Phalanstery. When the uninsured building was destroyed in a fire, the community was financially devastated and never recovered. It was fully closed by 1847. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a founding member of the farm, although he didn't agree with it's ideals, and eventually fictionalized his experience in his novel The Blithedale Romance.

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