Community House, Yelping Hill Assn., West Cornwall, Conn. 52.

Community House, Yelping Hill Assn., West Cornwall, Conn. 52.

In 1921, a group of families who vacationed together decided to formalize their arrangement by purchasing a decrepit farm in Cornwall, Connecticut, in the rural northwest corner of the state. Early in the planning, the partners recognized the importance of financial parity among them, since they were households of varying means. During the first summers, a flurry of volunteer and professional effort transformed the barn into a spacious community house (pictured here).
The sprawling parcel of some 600 acres left plenty of room for each of the original families to build private dwellings on four acre parcels of their choosing. These varied in scale, cost, and style from luxurious summer homes to rustic cabins to tent sites high on a hill on the property. Upkeep of common infrastructure—community house, roads, electricity, water—was a shared expense.
The community, with its property, agreements, and governing association still exists today (2025). For a detailed history, see the Atlantic Monthly article attached above.