Hopedale Community
The Hopedale Community was founded in Milford, Massachusetts, in 1843 by Adin Ballou. He and his followers purchased of land on which they built homes for the community members, chapels and the factories for which the company was initially formed. The area was later split from Milford and became the town of Hopedale, Massachusetts. Ballou believed that he could create a utopian community blending the features of a factory town with those of a religion-based commune. He called this "Practical Christianity" but unlike several similar communities, it was important to Ballou that Hopedale would not be isolated from the rest of society. The community stood for temperance, abolitionism, women's rights, spiritualism and education. Fourteen years after the land was purchased, Hopedale went bankrupt. The intentional community was converted into a textile factory town. The factories were purchased by George and Ebenezer Draper, later of the Draper Corporation. Joint Stock Community Each person, upon joining the Community, invested their property into the Community. Each year they were credited according to this amount. If a person were to leave the Community, they were given either their initial investment or ninety percent of that which was credited to them. Gender equality The Hopedale