New Harmony, IN

New Harmony is a Posey County town on the Wabash River, about 15 miles north of Mount Vernon and part of the Evansville area. The 2020 census counted 690 residents. George Rapp's Harmony Society founded the settlement in 1814, then sold it to Robert Owen, whose communitarian experiment brought a second wave of reformers, scientists, and educators. The original grid, river edge, and surviving buildings still make that two-stage history visible.

ATTRraschau / CC BY 2.0

Historic New Harmony now cares for 23 properties, including Harmonist homes, Church Park, the Atheneum visitor center, and the Salomon Wolf House. The Roofless Church and Paul Tillich Park add later layers of architecture, theology, and public art. New Harmony's town plan keeps these places close to its streets, while the Wabash and nearby Harmonie State Park supply the larger landscape. Historic sites sit within the town grid, so the past is encountered beside homes, gardens, and ordinary town streets. It is a small Indiana town where a river settlement became a laboratory for communal living and remains an active place for preservation, study, and local events.