Old Economy
Ambridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Third and last home, 1825-1905, of the Harmony Society, religious community founded by George Rapp in 1805. Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Old Economy was the third and final home of the Harmony Society, a communal religious sect of German immigrants led by George Rapp, who founded the group in 1805. Settling here in 1825, the Harmonists built a prosperous, tightly organized village whose farms, mills, and factories made the celibate community famous for its industry and wealth. The society endured until 1905, and its preserved village is now cared for by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Why it matters
The Harmonists were among the most successful of the utopian communal experiments that flourished in nineteenth-century America, showing how faith and collective enterprise could build lasting prosperity on the frontier.
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Related people
- · George Rapp
Related events
- · Harmony Society
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Harmony Society Church
Ambridge, PA · est. 1967
Between 1828 and 1831 the Harmony Society—German Pietist immigrants who followed George Rapp in a communal, celibate religious life—raised this brick church at their town of Economy. The members made the bricks themselves, and the building, believed designed by Frederick Rapp, became the spiritual heart of one of America's most successful utopian communities. The Harmonists blended fervent millennial faith with shrewd industry, prospering while awaiting the Second Coming.
Old Economy Memorial
Ambridge, PA · est. 1947
In 1805 a band of German Pietist immigrants led by George Rapp organized the Harmony Society, a communal religious sect that held all property in common while awaiting the millennium. After earlier settlements in Pennsylvania and Indiana, they built their final home, Economy, along the Ohio River between 1824 and 1831. Their disciplined communal industry made them famously prosperous until the society dissolved a century later, in 1905.
Harmony Society Cemetery
Ambridge, PA · est. 1963
This ground holds the graves of 594 members and workers of the Harmony Society, the German pietist community whose nearby village of Old Economy was one of America's most successful communal experiments. Led by their faith in a coming millennium, the Harmonists lived and labored together, prospering in farming and manufacturing while practicing celibacy. Their unmarked burials reflect the plain, self-effacing devotion at the heart of the society.
Chinese Workers in Beaver Falls
Beaver Falls, PA · est. 2021
In 1872, after disputes with its local workforce, the Beaver Falls Cutlery Company — owned by the utopian Harmonist community — recruited Chinese laborers from San Francisco and New Orleans to staff its factory. These men were among the first Chinese immigrants in Pennsylvania, arriving during a decade of rising hostility toward Chinese newcomers. That backlash culminated in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred nearly all immigration from China until its repeal in 1943.