Experimental Phalansteries

A phalanstery was a type of building designed for a self-contained utopian community, ideally consisting of 500-2000 people working together for mutual benefit, and developed in the early 19th century by Charles Fourier. Fourier was unable to create phalansteries in Europe due to a lack of financial support. However, his social views and proposals inspired a whole movement of intentional communities.

One of those communities was the Scaieni Phalanstery in Romania. The experiment was started by Romanian boyar (noble) Teodor Diamant in 1835-36. The earliest members of the community were Roma people liberated from slavery by the boyar who owned the estate. The phalanstery produced both agricultural and handicraft goods, and the workday was of only 8 hours, at a time when many peasants worked up to 16 hours a day.  The produce of the commune was distributed according to the amount of worked performed and the level of skill, assessed through vote by the members of the community and according to the quantity of capital contributed. The phalanstery came into the eyes of the authorities in August 1836 and one of their representatives visited the community. The report discusses a group of 24 people, wearing odd clothing and who weren't very willing to talk about their community. The fact that so many men and women lived in a common household made the authorities presume that it was a brothel. Scaieni Phalanstery was terminated in 1836 by the authorities which feared that this kind of experiment would encourage communist beliefs in the country.

Fourier's vision inspired many communities in the United States as well. Among them were the community of Utopia, Ohio; La Reunion near present-day Dallas, Texas; the North American Phalanx in Red Bank, New Jersey; and Brook Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts (where Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the founders).

North American Phalanx building in NJ