Old Economy

Along the Ohio River in Ambridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, the Economy historic district holds the remaining buildings of the Harmony Society, a German communitarian sect that settled there in 1825 and occupied the town until its dissolution in 1905. The grid of streets, laid out by the Harmonists, is lined with more than ninety Harmonist houses, mostly of locally made brick or wood lap siding, and a restored museum complex includes the Feast Hall, completed around 1828, and the Great House, built about 1826 for founder George Rapp and his adopted son Frederick. The Harmonist church, built from 1828 to 1831, is the district's most conspicuous building. The settlement is regarded as significant for its textile output of wool, cotton and silk, its use of steam power, and the financial and oil-related activities of the Society. Its planned town layout and early 19th-century construction methods are considered rare survivals.