What is "fruitlands"

Fruitlands may refer to several places:

• Fruitlands (transcendental center), American historic landmark; short-lived Massachusetts utopian community founded in June 1843 by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane
  • Fruitlands Museum, American museum on site of transcendental center; in 1997 Fruitlands Museums Historic District was added to National Register of Historic Places
• Fruitlands (Augusta National Golf Club), American historic domestic single dwelling added in 1979 to National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond County, Georgia (listing 19)
• Fruitlands, New Zealand, 19th century gold mining settlement in the Central Otago district of the South Island; picturesque tourist area which takes its name from unsuccessful 1920s orchards

Fruitlands was a Utopian agrarian commune established in Harvard, Massachusetts by Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane in the 1840s, based on Transcendentalist principles. An account of its less-than-successful activities can be found in Alcott's daughter Louisa May Alcott's Transcendental Wild Oats.

Lane purchased what was known as the Wyman farm and its , which also included a dilapidated house and barn. Residents of Fruitlands ate no animal substances, drank only water, bathed in unheated water and "no artificial light would prolong dark hours or cost them the brightness of morning." Additionally, property was held communally, and no animal labor was used.

The community was short-lived and lasted only seven months. It was dependent on farming, which turned out to be too difficult. The original farmhouse, along with other historic buildings from the area, is now a part of Fruitlands Museum.