Ferrer Colony and Ferrer Modern School

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File:Ferrer 100 3059.JPG
Stucco relief from the Sam Goldman house in the Ferrer Colony.

The Ferrer Colony and the associated Ferrer Modern School was an anarchist intentional community founded in 1911 in New York City. In 1915 it moved to Piscataway in Middlesex County, New Jersey.[1] The Ferrer Modern School opened later. It lasted for more than 40 years before finally closing in 1953. The project was named after Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, an educator, activist and anarchist who founded the Modern School movement in Spain.[2][3]

Colony

The intentional community was run by consensus decision-making. Inhabitants were free to leave or join, with no questions asked. It gained a reputation for being a center of the free love movement, which drew in new inhabitants.[2]

The colony purchased farmland for about $100 a plot. The plot was then sold to a community member for $150. By 1922, at their peak, 90 homes had been established. Some of the homes were only lived in during the weekend because people commuted to work in New York City.[2]

Ferrer School

The Ferrer School was originally at 103 East 107th Street, and housed children of strikers from the 1912 Lawrence textile strike and 1913 Paterson silk strike.[4]

Goldman House

Goldman House
Goldman House, Piscataway.jpg
Ferrer Colony and Ferrer Modern School is located in Middlesex County, New Jersey
Ferrer Colony and Ferrer Modern School
Location 143 School Street
Piscataway, New Jersey
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Built 1915[6][6][7]
NRHP Reference # 10000813[5]
NJRHP # 4967[8]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 1, 2010
Designated NJRHP April 28, 2010

Samuel Goldman (1882-1969) began building the Russian House in the Modern School colony in 1915.[6][6][7] The building was added to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.[5][8] This house is significant as the remaining building most evocative of the colony, and for the Goldman-designed sculptures and bas-reliefs on the building's facades.[9]

Decline

The Ferrer Colony and Modern School disbanded in 1953. During the Second World War the US Government bought the surrounding land, and the colony was subject to theft, vandalism.[2][10] Parents then stopped sending their children to the school. Between 1955 and 1958, the assets of the school were sold off.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Laurence Veysey, The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth-Century America (Chicago, 1978) p. 77-78
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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