Dates
- 1892-1996, bulk 1910-1980
Scope and Content
The Free Acres Association Collection spans the period 1892 to 1996, with the bulk dating from 1910 to 1980. It is approximately 15.7 cubic feet in size, including 37 manuscript boxes, 2 phase boxes, and 43 map folders.
The collection has essentially two parts: the official records of the Free Acres Association, and historical materials. The official records were originally presented to Special Collections and University Archives in 1967 by the Association. The historical materials were donated by Free Acres resident and newspaper editor Spencer Brodney between 1954 and 1973. In 1995, Free Acres Historian and Historical and Archives Committee member Laurel Hessing donated additional records of the Association and historical material.
The Free Acres Association records comprise over two-thirds of the collection, including leases; minutes of the Association and related materials; financial records; maps and blueprints; and correspondence and minutes of other official bodies such as the Board of Trustees and the Board of Assessors.
The historical materials includes files of Free Acres' clubs or guilds, records of a children's summer camp, Camp Wanoga, run by the Free Acres Association; and files of committees set up to coordinate the decennial (and 25th) anniversary celebrations. The files of the 70th Anniversary Committee (1980) are particularly important because a questionnaire was sent out to all current and former Free Acres residents which yielded much biographical information. The booklets published to commemorate each anniversary can be found in the publications series.
The historical gatherings also include research materials used by Laurel Hessing and Historical and Archives Committee Chairman Martin Bierbaum, in their respective publications on Free Acres. The materials that Laurel Hessing collected about individuals constitute a separate series of biographical files, approximately two manuscript boxes. These files contain information about the many notable residents of Free Acres. Biographical material filed with individual leases has been transferred to this series. The historical materials also include Free Acres newsletters, and articles and other writings about Free Acres and Free Acres residents.
This collection also contains material in other formats. Among the official records are 41 map folders and about half a manuscript box of maps and blueprints of Free Acres and Free Acres leaseholds. Photographs can be found in the biographical files and guild files, as well as in the general photographs series, which mostly contains views of Free Acres. In addition, there are nine audiocassette tapes of interviews with Free Acres residents conducted by Livingston College student Robert Snyder in 1975. Three interviews have been transcribed. The audiocassettes, along with the transcripts and documentation of the project, constitute approximately half a manuscript box.
An unsorted addendum to the collection, received in 1997, consists of papers and photographs relating to Free Acres that were kept by Harry A. Maslow. He was a Free Acres resident who also served the Free Acres Association as a member of its Board of Trustees.
Extent
15.7 Cubic Feet (37 manuscript boxes, 2 phase boxes, 43 map folders)
Physical Location
Stored offsite. Advance notice of two working days required to consult bulk of collection. (Only oversize materials in boxes 38 and 39, plus the contents of the 43 map folders, available without advance notice.)
Language of Materials
English.
Conditions Governing Access
No Restrictions.
Abstract
Free Acres, an isolated, single tax community located primarily in Berkeley Heights Township, Union County, but also partly in Watchung Township, Somerset County, was founded in 1910 based upon the single tax theory of Henry George as interpreted by Bolton Hall. At first a summer colony (comprised of artists, writers, actors, and intellectuals from New York City), the community was governed by its leaseholders, whose social life centered on several communal institutions, including a community center, various athletic facilities, a dramatic guild, and other clubs. The community's original covenant was changed in 1936, as the result of an influx of permanent residents (who built actual houses instead of shacks), so that thereafter each leaseholder paid a flat fee only for the use of the communal services, and individual property taxes were assessed on top of that amount. Although no longer isolated, Free Acres today retains a cooperative structure, through the Free Acres Association, by which residents regulate their land use and make payments to support shared services and facilities. This collection includes both official records of the Free Acres Association and assembled historical materials concerning the Free Acres community. The Association records consist of leases; meeting minutes; general financial files; board of assessors files; board of trustees files; finance committee files; auditor's reports; maps and blueprints; and newsletters. The collected historical materials include files pertaining to the dramatic guild, the garden guild and the library guild; records of Camp Wanoga; miscellaneous photographs; anniversary files and publications; separate sets of research files on Free Acres gathered by residents Laurel Hessing and Martin Bierbaum; biographical files concerning selected residents; oral history interviews; writings which pertain in some way to Free Acres; and a small quantity of materials that relate to other experimental communities. An addendum to the collection consists of Harry A. Maslow's files on the Free Acres Association.
<emph render="bold">Historical Sketch</emph>
Free Acres is a small community located partly in Berkeley Heights and partly in Watchung, New Jersey. Originally founded in 1910 as a single-tax colony, Free Acres retains many unique characteristics today. Free Acres was founded by Bolton Hall (1854-1938), a New York attorney, real estate developer, writer, and social reformer. Bolton Hall was a disciple of the radical political economist Henry George (1839-1897). According to Henry George's single-tax theory, the accumulation of wealth and power was dependent on control of the land. He believed that if everyone was taxed according to the amount of land they owned, it would discourage land speculation and limit the power of large landowners. Bolton Hall, who was also influenced by the philosophic anarchists Leo Tolstoy, Peter Kropotkin, and William Morris, (1) took George's ideas further, advocating setting up small communities based on single-tax principles. Free Acres was actually one of several single-tax colonies which were established between 1895 and 1930. Two of these, Fairhope, Alabama, and Arden, Delaware, are—like Free Acres—still in existence today. In 1910, Hall decided to turn the Murphy farm, one of his properties in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, into a single-tax colony. He set up the Free Acres Association as a non-profit corporation, in order to:
establish and conduct a community for the purpose of study and demonstration of problems of municipal government and taxation, in which all members . . . shall be free from all forms of private monopoly of natural resources. (2)Hall divided the land into leaseholds, which ran for one year each. The rents were used first to pay local property taxes and then for community services. Rents were based on the annually appraised value of the land. Each leaseholder had the right to vote at Association meetings. The officers of the Association were the trustees, who administered the colony; the Town Clerk; and the Treasurer. The Free Acres Constitution prohibited discrimination on the basis of age, color, or gender, (3) and also prohibited allowing monopolies, including water and utilities, to enter Free Acres. Free Acres had its own water supply until it began buying water from the Commonwealth Water Company in 1930. Another stipulation of the Constitution was that if leaseholders attempted to mortgage their land, it would revert immediately to Bolton Hall. In the early years, Free Acres was primarily a summer colony of artists, writers, actors, and intellectuals from New York. Living conditions were primitive: there were no lights, roads, or cars and not much water, and people lived in makeshift shacks that they built themselves. The colonists were an ideologically-mixed group, including single-taxers, socialists, anarchists, and conservatives. Some of the more noteworthy residents in the early years were Amy Mali Hicks, a set designer, costume-maker, and feminist, who became the first Town Clerk; two Romanian immigrants, Konrad Bercovici, author of The Volga Boatman, and Dr. Benzion Liber, pioneer in public health, preventative care, mental health, and holistic medicine. Other figures were Harry Kelly, later a founder of the anarchist Ferrer Colony in Stelton, New Jersey; newspaper editor Spencer Brodney; Thorne Smith, author of the Topper series; illustrator Will Crawford; and novelist and short story writer MacKinlay Kantor. Actors James Cagney and Victor Kilian also spent summers there. In spite of the rugged living conditions, an active community life developed at Free Acres, which revolved around communal institutions: the Farm House (acquired from Bolton Hall in 1919), the ball field, tennis court, and swimming hole. Free Acres was administered by various committees including the Finance Committee, Building Committee, Constitution and Bylaws Committee, and Nominating Committee. The Forestry Committee oversaw communal property and could protect trees on individual leaseholds. From 1911 to 1913, a Horse Association provided a horse and wagon to transport people from the Berkeley Heights train station to Free Acres. Free Acres also had several clubs: the Dramatic Guild, the Archery and Folks Guild, the Garden Guild, the Library Guild, the Tennis Court Club, and the Young People's Club. The Dramatic Guild was very popular; every year elaborate performances were put on in the colony's Open-Air Theater. Free Acres remained fairly stable until the 1930s. With the advent of the Depression, a number of families found it more economical to stay in Free Acres all year. At this time, a new group of German immigrants, many of whom were skilled craftsmen, arrived in Free Acres. They learned about Free Acres through Camp Elsinore, a German nature and hiking club that owned land adjacent to the community. The Germans built new homes, constructed roads, improved the water supply, and built a new swimming pool. Their enterprise inadvertently forced Free Acres to modify its single tax structure. The Free Acres Association collected rents from each leaseholder, from which it paid a lump sum to Berkeley Heights to pay for property taxes. Free Acres properties were assessed at a low and roughly equal rate. When Berkeley Heights saw the improvements that the Germans had made to their leaseholds, it raised taxes on these properties. According to the Free Acres Constitution, however, the Association could not tax improvements, so the Association had to raise the general assessment, thus making all the residents subsidize those who had made improvements to their holdings. Dissatisfaction with these developments led the Association to ask Bolton Hall to let it alter the method of taxation. Hall did not agree, but in 1936, a compromise was reached, known as the "communal advantage tax," where each leaseholder paid a flat rate for the use of the colony's communal services, and individual property taxes were assessed on top of that. In spite of these changes, Free Acres remained a unique and thriving community after the Second World War. A children's summer camp, Camp Wanoga, was organized in 1945, and the system of committees and guilds continued operating. By 1950, two-thirds of the residents lived year-round in Free Acres. The area was changing, however, becoming part of the New York commuter belt, with the attendant rise in property values. Banks finally agreed to allow Free Acres residents to have mortgages, and the term of the leases was extended from one to 99 years, thus abandoning completely the single-tax ideal. Today, Free Acres is similar to a cooperative or condominium complex, where residents are charged fees to pay for shared services and facilities. The Free Acres Association continues to meet every month in the Farm House, however, and the committees continue to maintain the swimming pool, Farm House, and other communal property. The community also remains strongly environmentalist, retaining its trees and open spaces, and in recent years, has become increasingly aware of its unusual history.
Notes
(1) Martin Bierbaum, "Free Acres: Bolton Hall's Single-Tax Experimental Community," New Jersey History Vol. 102, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer, 1984), p. 40. (2) Certificate of Incorporation of the Free Acres Association. (3) Joseph Albert Romano, "Free Acres Single Tax Colony, 1910-1930: An Experiment in Pleasant Living." Unpublished University of Tennessee M.A. Thesis, 1972, p. 17.
General
(1) Martin Bierbaum, "Free Acres: Bolton Hall's Single-Tax Experimental Community," New Jersey History Vol. 102, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer, 1984), p. 40.
General
(2) Certificate of Incorporation of the Free Acres Association.
General
(3) Joseph Albert Romano, "Free Acres Single Tax Colony, 1910-1930: An Experiment in Pleasant Living." Unpublished University of Tennessee M.A. Thesis, 1972, p. 17.
General
(1) Martin Bierbaum, "Free Acres: Bolton Hall's Single-Tax Experimental Community," New Jersey History Vol. 102, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer, 1984), p. 40.
General
(2) Certificate of Incorporation of the Free Acres Association.
General
(3) Joseph Albert Romano, "Free Acres Single Tax Colony, 1910-1930: An Experiment in Pleasant Living." Unpublished University of Tennessee M.A. Thesis, 1972, p. 17.
Processing Information
Except for photographs and fragile originals, all duplicate materials have been culled from the collection. In many cases, preservation-quality photocopies have been made to replace damaged or acidic paper for materials which are of enduring value due to their subject matter rather than their format.
- Title
- Inventory to the Free Acres Association Collection, 1892-1996 MC 1147
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Fernanda Perrone, assisted by Catherine Keim
- Date
- May 2006
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
- Sponsor
- Note: Preparation of this finding aid was funded by a grant-in-aid from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository