Summer Communities

Arden comes alive in summer. Readers may have noticed that my blog has slowed to a crawl. I am buzzing with the usual warm weather activities: pool, ACRA Summer program, walking, gardening, grilling, outdoor concerts and plays, backyard socializing, and dabbing my feet and ankles with salve to calm the itch of bug bites. I pull my bike out of the shed and take in more of Arden than I can on foot. As I ride by houses in various states of renovation, I can't help consider that Arden was initially formed as a summer community. People didn't winter here They lived in their idealogical centers of Philadelphia and Wilmington from whence their Georgist groups orbited and dreamed of a day when Arden could sustain their vision year-round.

The Arden Fair, always the Saturday before Labor Day, was a time when artists could sell off their summer inventory before returning to the city. Then, the Arden cottages and cabins, most without heat, would be shuttered until warmer temperatures once again prevailed. It didn't mean that Ardenites left their belief systems behind. But they did have feet in two worlds. I think about this when topics get heated and people rail at village meetings. I love that we all are so passionate here, but when Arden began, people experienced this concentrated community in 3 or 4 month doses. Doses that were tempered always with warm breezes and lots of fresh air. These days, we don't get that kind of break from one another. This is not to say, I am tired of this community. I'm not. I love living here year-round. But I am ready to take a vacation. Before this summer, I just wanted to stay here all the time and never miss an experience. Now, I know I can take my leave and come back to Arden with my juices flowing just as those first Arden residents did when they passed through the Arden "gate" on weekends and in the summer.

When I explain Arden to people back in Lancaster County, I often invoke Mt. Greta, a summer community in Lebanon County. They, too, have full-time residents now, but it is still a casual, wooded place with Victorian-style houses bumping up against one another on a hillside overlooking a lake, open air theater, bike trails, and The Jigger Shop--an ice cream shop with a hallowed reputation.

Mt. Gretna precedes Arden by a decade. It wasn't a Georgist enclave, but it was formed with the same jolt of intention by the Methodists when they identified it as a good place for a Chautauqua. The Pennsylvania Chatuaqua was modeled after the original New York Chautauqua Institute which was founded in 1874. At its heart, the Chautauqua movement was about offering adult education outside the bounds of college. Learning could be casual--of the vacation variety, like learning something new while visiting a unique location. Or it could be more in-depth. In addition, Chautauquas put great emphasis on the arts. Communities such as these boast theaters and large gathering places for lectures and classes. And while this movement came from the Methodists, it was meant to serve the larger Christian fellowship.

While Arden and Mt. Gretna have different origins and different styles of architecture, we do have some core values which, from the outside, look very similar. Both communities have huge arts followings and support lots of live performances and concerts. We both have educational type lecture series and activities for our residents such as yoga and house tours. We both have end-of-summer arts festivals and crazy narrow roads that really don't support the huge influx of visitors these festivals attract (but we make do--shuttling people from far-off parking spots). Mt. Gretna retains more of its summer feel. I am not sure of the percentage of residents that live there year round, but I know lots of families who have summer houses there, as opposed to Arden which has lost that summer community reputation. Still, it is a good fit for comparison and at least gives people a reference.

"Oh," they say and nod their heads. It is enough to contemplate on a summer's evening dizzy with fireflies and mojitos. I will save my spiel on Georgism for cooler weather.

William Shakespeare, Arden, and me

Mark and I loved Arden on our first visit in May 2009*, could envision ourselves living here one day, but it may not have gone further than that had it not been for Arden's Shakespeare culture. Of our kids, one is an Anglophile and the other is an actor. Their Venn diagram of commonality doesn't include much, but you will find Shakespeare and Monty Python among their few shared interests.  Because Arden boasts the oldest outdoor Shakespeare theater in this country and has a history of summer Shakespeare productions that spans a century, we were curious about their latest endeavor, The Comedy of Errors. So for our second visit to Arden, in June of 2009, we brought the kids. Anything to foster healthy sibling interaction.

Shakespeare isn't just another quirky pastime for an arts community; it is central to the culture in Arden. This village was founded on the principles of Georgism and the Single Tax. Arden founders, sculptor Frank Stevens and architect William Price, met and honed their ideas of Utopia while members of Philadelphia's Single Tax Society. One facet of this society was the organization of a Shakespeare Club within the group. What does Shakespeare have to do with Georgism and the Single Tax? Performing Shakespeare was the training ground for competent public speakers. As they performed, the members were gaining poise and comfort in front of an audience. Their ultimate goal was to create great orators to spread the message of Henry George to the masses. Shakespeare productions became so central to architect William Price's life that when he built his family home in Overbrook, PA, he made the third floor into a theater to accommodate performances.

When Price and Stevens actualized their dream of a utopian village near Wilmington, Shakespeare was at the heart--literally. They created an outdoor theater for performances off of the center of the main green.  The Field Theater exists today in almost the same form, with its simple boulder backdrop and circular bench seating, that it had when it was created in the early 1900's, though these days, it does boast better lights.

Arden can even trace its name and motto to Shakespeare's writing. I knew about the name. Arden Forest is the setting of the play, As You Like It, which is performed every tenth year in Arden. In the play, the characters exchange notes by tree-mail, posting letters on the trees of the forest. When we came to Arden for the second year (2010) to see the play, we went for a hike in Arden Forest and were thrilled to see life imitating art. All throughout the forest, notes were left for friends. Some were hanging from the trees with baggies protecting the words. Others were in jar or tins. We saw love notes from one dog to another. We were quite enchanted by it all. Even more impressed by this touch than we had been by the towel folding at Disney Resorts.

As for the motto? I hadn't realized that "You are welcome hither" was Shakespearean until I went to see this year's production of King Lear.  I groaned when I heard it spoken. I should have known! I like the fact that Arden is constantly surprising me with little tidbits of its Shakespearean history. The Craft Shop Museum (a building constructed in the Elizabethan style of architecture--another nod to Shakespeare's England) is featuring a historical retrospective of costumes. I have got to get over there to see them. I was awed by this year's costumes, all sewn by volunteers. I was one of the helpers last year and was privy to some of the behind-the-scenes process. The attention to detail is remarkable. With few sets to speak of (the aforementioned boulder), costuming becomes an even more important aspect of storytelling.

These days the shows feature professional actors along side some of my amateur neighbors.  (I really shouldn't discriminate. Some of the professionals are my neighbors as well.) It has been fun to meet some of the Ardenites we had been watching in plays all those years. They were more welcoming than rock stars, but we were still a little star-struck. As evidence,  I offer an example from my Time Hop, a Facebook post from four years ago, "Maren [my actor child] made a friend at the pool; the girl who played Miranda in The Tempest last night. Of course."

I know I have just scratched the surface of the ways the Shakespeare has influenced village life--and by default--me. I hope this blog post opens me up to even more tidbits. I love connection. Speaking of which, our son travelled down from Lancaster County specifically to watch King Lear with us. If Shakespeare can keep our kids tethered to us, I will have another reason to be grateful for the Great Bard.


* Of note--my novel Summers at Blue Lake contains a scene that takes place at an outdoor Shakespeare performance and perhaps influenced Arden resident Cynthia Dewick to tell me that I would love Arden and offer her "Little House" up to us for the weekend. Cynthia read my book because a mutual friend of ours picked it up for their book club to read. In February 2008, I attended the book club in Newark, DE, and met Cynthia for the first time.

Utopia

Arden Gild Hall

What is Utopia exactly? What is an intentional community? Put simply, a intentional community is designed from the beginning around common ideals and the assumption that individuals within the community will pool resources and share responsibilities to work toward those ideals.  In The Ardens (Arden, Ardentown, and Ardencroft) those common ideals are the single tax (based on Henry George); the importance of art, music,  and theater; and the environment. Arden is a Tree City which boasts 50% green spaces including two forests and a 73% canopy.

If you know of my love of art and nature, it is easy to see why I would place myself here, in Arden. But I was drawn to the intentionality itself. My hometown of Lititz, PA was created, not because it was on a trade route or near a river, but as a religious community for the Moravians, a protestant sect that placed a high value on music. My ancestors came there and helped found the place. It wasn’t a closed or intentional community when I lived there, but that is where its roots were. Later, when I attended college, I sought out special interest housing. Instead of rushing to become an adult in my first apartment, I chose to live in housing with a purpose. In my case, it was honors housing, but we had activities with all the houses, many of which were formed around cultures (The French House) or interests (The Music House).

And too, I have a fascination with the Revolutionary Period of our country’s history. I’ve read all the biographies of our founding fathers, visited the homes of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. I’ve been to Williamsburg no less than fifteen times. Why am I such a groupie of this time period? These men got to invent a freaking country! They got to start from scratch and found a place based on their ideals. Talk about intentionality.

Probably the biggest influence on our decision to move to Arden was the many years we lived without community. In the eighteen years leading up to our move, we lived in a spot which wasn’t accessible to much. We had to travel five miles to a grocery store, over twenty miles to attend a church that matched our beliefs. The school district where our kids went to school was made up of a lot of small little burgs and villages. There was no centralized town around which to rally. Added to that was the fact that in the most recent high school mock election, Obama came in third to Romney and Paul (who was a write-in candidate). The sense of isolation and the fact that our liberal ideals were so far removed from the population made us feel very lost. We were not only looking for a place to belong, but for a place where we could make meaning.

A lot of press has been given to living the intentional life with an emphasis placed on the individual. Not everyone can make the move to an intentional community. My hope, with this blog, is that those who are curious about life lived in such a place can have their curiosities satisfied and move on to new questions about what makes meaning in their own lives. What makes community? How can we satisfy those very human needs? Perhaps we can have a community right here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments section.