In September 2002 I set out on a road trip. My plan was to fairly-well cover the southern half of Indiana, but there's so much more to see than I anticipated that I barely saw the southwestern quadrant; even then, I skipped several places I would have liked to have visited.

 

A communitarian German religious sect, the Rappites, under the leadership of George Rapp, established a settlement first called Harmonie along the Wabash River in Posey County about 1815. They were industrious, producing silk, lumber, woolens, bricks and wine, which were traded as far away as New Orleans via the rivers. Their brick homes and buildings were among the most imposing and their standard of living among the highest in Indiana at the time.

 

Frontier isolation and distance from eastern markets for their manufactured products led the Rappites to return to Pennsylvania after only ten years. They sold the settlement to Scottish industrialist Robert Owen, who envisioned a utopian communal society based on learning. He brought in a "boatload of knowledge", via the river, brilliant scientists, educators and scholars, but the community failed to prosper because it lacked people with knowledge of or inclination toward the basic skills of growing food and creating the artifacts necessary for the physical functioning of the community.

 

The Athenaeum is the gateway to New Harmony, functioning as a visitors' center and educational facility. The building, designed by Richard Meier and built in 1979, is faced with white porcelain-enameled steel panels. It received an AIA Honor Award in 1982. Most photographs show it surrounded by lush green grass, under a cloudless blue sky. My visit came on a stormy day after a long drought, and the parched lawn and dark skies made a very different sort of photo.

 

 

 

 

 

What follows is a light skimming of the surface. Historic New Harmony has many homes and othe buildings open for tour, although not all are open every day. Two different sets are open on alternate days, and for the serious history enthusiast a two-day stay to see them all would be worthwhile.

 

The Rapp Granary was built by the Harmonists in 1818 to store great quantities of grain against the famine and drought that they expected to precede the arrival of the Millennium. After the departure of the Harmonists the building passed through several uses including serving as the laboratory of David Dale Owen, a geology pioneer who became Indiana's first State Geologist in 1837. An 1878 fire destroyed the upper two stories, and by the 1990s the building was in severe disrepair and in danger of being lost. An extensive restoration began in 1997 to restore its original five storeys and appearance. Local artisans used authentic local materials and historic construction techniques to recreate an imposing structure that now functions as a musem, reception hall and performance space.

 

 

 

 

Restored private homes, like the one with red shutters, are interspersed among the properties that are part of the self-guided walking tour.

 

 

Upon arrival, the Harmonists built log cabins for shelter until more comfortable, permanent buildings could be constructed.

 

 

 

 

Doctor's Office

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Posey County Courthouse in Mount Vernon was designed by J.A. Vrydagh and Levi Clark and built 1875 - 1876.

 

Ohio River at Mount Vernon, Indiana

 

Harmonie State Park sits along the Wabash River, about 25 miles northwest of Evansville. The park is underutilized but well kept, and has decent trails and a pleasant, clean campground. I stayed there during my two-day visit to New Harmony.

 

 

Francis Vigo was an Italian-American fur trader with Spanish citizenship, who aided American forces during the Revolutionary War.

 

The George Rogers Clark Memorial is a National Historical Park commemorating Clark's capture of Fort Sackville in February, 1779 with a suprise attack on the British Garrison.

 

The foundation of St. Francis Xavier was laid in 1826, and in 1834 the church became the cathedral for the new Diocese of Vincennes. The building's crypt holds the remains of the first four bishops of the diocese. It was designated a basilica in 1970.

 

 

William Henry Harrison built Grouseland 1803 - 1804 while he was governor of Indiana Territory. The home also served as the center of territorial government during that time. His name for the home came from the abundance of grouse in the area at the time.

 

 

Fairly busy freight line.

 

Several buildings significant in Indiana's history have been relocated to a grouping adjacent to Grouseland. The one in the foreground is Jefferson Academy, established in 1801 by Governor William Henry Harrison. Students were enrolled at age 15 and received three years of instruction in Latin classics, English literature and Euclidian Geometry. Typical enrollment was 25 students and tuition was $16 per year plus a cord of firewood. The head master was the village priest, Father Jean Francois Rivet, former professor of Latin at the Royal College of Limoges, France. In 1806 the academy was chartered as Vincennes University.

 

 

The Northwest Territory was divided in 1800 and Indiana Territory was established. Indiana Territory included the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and western Michigan. Vincennes was the territorial capital, and the red building used in 1811 is the only one surviving of four different buildings in Vincennes that served as a meeting place for the Territorial legislature. It has passed through many owners and uses and four different locations en route to its present site and state of preservation.

 

The Knox County Courthouse at Vincennes was designed by Edwin C. May and Adolph Scherrer and was built 1873 - 1876 from Indiana Limestone. Edwin May designed the 1886 Indiana State Capitol in Indianapolis, along with courthouses in other counties.

 

Vincennes has a compact business district with an interesting assortment of handsome buildings but little activity. A lot of the upper storeys have boarded-up windows.

 

Cecil M. Harden Lake is one of the newest Indiana DNR properties, with the best campground amenities I found on my trip. The brick restroom/shower buildings have stainless steel counters and sinks and everything is well-lighted and spotlessly clean.

 

The foundation under the Mansfield Roller Mill was laid in 1819 for a one-storey log building. In 1880, a two-storey building was built along with a new dam providing a nine-foot head to power two turbines of 40 and 60 horsepower, respectively, that drove roller mills to produce corn meal and high-quality white flour. In 1893 a third storey was added to house the full complement of roller-milling equipment. The mill's grain-handling system was based on that devised in the 1780s by New England millwright Oliver Evans, whose concepts are still in use. In full production the mill employed three men.

 

 

One roller mill was used to grind wheat for flour, and the other to grind corn for meal. The mill's products were sold as far away as Cincinnati under the brand names Victory Flour and Domino.

 

Unable to compete with large commercial mills after 1929, the mill was converted to a feed mill. The water wheel is ornamental and was added by a later owner. It never was used to power the mill.

 

The 1867 Mansfield Covered Bridge spans Big Raccoon Creek and once carried Indiana Route 59 traffic. A new highway route now bypasses the bridge.

 

In 1995 the owners donated the mill to the Indiana Department of Resources. The DNR has restored the mill and staffed it with a historian and operators, and it is open from late March until late October.

 

Really nice set Rob.  New Harmony looks really nice.  I of course knew it from architecture school but never went and it looks more like a community, which does not come across when you are reading about famous buildings by various architects.

New Harmony looks like it came right out of a storybook or something.  It's nice!!!

Fantastic!

Vincennes at last!

 

Wonderful photos!

New Harmony is also a functioning town with an attractive historic business district and private homes. There's a great gallery/museum with historic paintings of the settlement. My trip was before my approach to photography was transformed by going digital and by hanging out on forums, and back then a consideration was that every time I pressed the shutter release it cost about a quarter. I may have to revisit some of these places.

 

A lot of the settlement of this area came via the Ohio River and its tributaries, and it seems like there's history around every corner and in every crossroads village down there, from the American Revolution and the Northwest Territory on up through Indiana Statehood, the Civil War and into more recent times.

Vincennes is amazing! Very compact and more vertical than I expected.