Ferrer Center and Colony

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The

Ferrer Center

and

Stelton Colony

were an anarchist

and colony, respectively, organized to honor the memory of anarchist

and to build a school based on his model,

, in the United States.

In the widespread outcry following

in 1909 and the

international movement that sprung in its wake, a group of New York

anarchists convened as the

Ferrer Association

in 1910. Their

headquarters, the Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of cultural events in

the avant-garde arts and radical politics, including lectures,

discussions, and performances. It was also home to the

Ferrer Modern

School

, a

that emphasized unplanned, undogmatic

curriculum. The Center moved several times throughout Manhattan to

establish a space conducive to children's play. Following a bomb plot

and police infiltration, several anarchists from the association

decided to take the school out to the country.

The school moved to what would become the Ferrer Colony in

, 30 miles outside New York City, in 1914. The colony was based

around the school and land was individually parceled such that, in the

spirit of

, anyone could sell and exit the colony

at their prerogative. They intended for the colony to form the center of

a national libertarian education movement. The school floundered in its

first years and passed through multiple administrations, the longest of

which with co-principals

. The school closed

in 1953. It had been a model for short-lived Ferrer schools across the

country and lasted among the longest.

Ferrer Center

[

]

Francisco Ferrer, whom the

project was named after

In 1909, the

, pedagogue, and anarchist Francisco Ferrer was

executed in

and subsequently propelled into martyrdom. The

resulting

led to the founding of

in the model of his

throughout the world. One

such school was founded in New York.

On June 12, 1910, a group of 22 anarchists and sympathizers began the

Francisco Ferrer Association in New York City. Together they built a

"cultural center and evening school", which expanded into an

"experimental day school" and, ultimately, a colony outside

. The association lasted over 40 years

and had

three goals: to promote Ferrer's writings, to organize meetings on the

anniversary of his death, and to establish schools by his model

throughout the United States.

Outside the United States, the Americans

had no explicit connection with international Ferrer groups.

The Association's headquarters, the Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of

cultural events: literary lectures, debates on current affairs,

arts and performance, social dances, and classes for the

inquisitive masses.

And when the Center crossed genres, its spirit of

experimentalism was unpretentious.

Though many of its teachers were

hostile to formal academic manner, classes addressed standard

subjects.

Some were taught by distinguished individuals: painters

and

taught

's son taught

's law

partner taught government, and

taught the

The Center held an evening English class, whose topics

often included proletarian history and current affairs.

One group

studied

. Lectures discussed free thought, religion, sex, and

hygiene.

proposed mothers' meetings on

. On

the weekends, the Center hosted speakers for discussion including

journalist

, poet

, and reporter

. A lecture by lawyer

attracted hundreds.

Others associated with the Center included

, and

The

started a "Free Theatre" at the Center

in late 1914. The group performed new manuscripts, including a world

premiere of a

drama, as well as their own original plays,

which had social themes. The theater had a very limited budget and some

of its performers struggled to speak English.

They also hosted

's troupe and others from

The Center had an air of radical affability and

Historian

described the Center, with its unrestricted

discussions on social subjects and wide representation of nationalities,

as potentially the country's least inhibited and most stimulating small

venue at the time.

The Center's radical politics made it a haven for

revolutionaries,

, and libertarians.

hosted children from the

, supported

's 1914 mobilization of the unemployed, and fed protesters.

The Center's formation coincided with a resurgence of interest in

radical politics: the rise of

, multiple revolutions

(including

), and

. While

had eroded

immigrant interest in radical politics for several decades, with this

optimistic turn, anarchism had begun to escape the stigma of the 1901

By 1914, the Center's adult membership was in

the hundreds

and Jewish people formed the largest contingent of its

many represented nationalities.

The social foundation of the New York

Ferrer movement was the relationship between

, who

valued education, and domestic Americans, who approached teaching with

alacrity.

The Association and Modern School leaders were mostly domestic

Americans.

Among the early leaders, only

was an

immigrant, and he arrived three years after the Center's founding. The

rest were not immigrants: the early spokesperson and first Association president

, and early financier Alden Freeman. Journalist

, who lectured at the Center, came to write about

culture following

his interactions there.

wrote of the Center expanding

his understanding of New York society beyond the knowledge he had received from

books.

Several anarchists from the association decided to take the school out to the country.

The Center served as a model for schools across the United States in

, and

. But while these schools mostly closed within several years, the schools in Stelton and Mohegan would last for

decades.

New York Modern School

[

]

As was originally intended, the Ferrer Association established a day school for children within the Ferrer Center in

October 1911. In practice, the New York Ferrer Modern School was based less on Ferrer's method than his memory. The

New York school's founders were propelled by their sense of injustice at Ferrer's execution and their belief in the

liberatory prospect of his approach, but they made no concerted effort to replicate his example. The American

movement for

was a more likely influence on the New York founders' interest in starting a

school, as was the importance put upon education in Jewish culture. New York anarchists believed in the liberatory

role of the school partly because, as European anarchist émigrés, they believed in the power of ideas to change the

future and wanted their children to share their values.

The school's early character was unplanned and undogmatic. The Association sought "the reconstruction of society upon

the basis of freedom and justice" and accordingly, the founders wanted their school to let children develop freely and

through this freedom, develop a sense of social justice. The Association was essentially anarchist, unwedded to a

particular ideal, but to the free expression of opinion and exchange of ideas. The school would be both a protected

island against the influence of middle-class America, and a force to propel cultural and

The Association found little agreement on school policy apart from that education was a process of educing a

children's latent talents rather than a process of imposing dogma.

The founders had little experience with

education or parenting, apart from some having taught in the

radical Sunday Schools,

and trusting

no authority, would hold long debates with no effect. Some Association members interfered in the classroom to the

objection of other members.

The day school teacher was not expected to uphold a religious or social dogma but

instead to "have the libertarian spirit" and answer children's questions truthfully.

The teachers had low salaries

and high turnover, including multiple scrambles for staffing. No principal stayed longer than a year between 1911 and

1916.

The Ferrer Modern School also suffered its environmental conditions. The Center's original location at 6

was established in haste and could not house a day school for lack of outdoor play space and park access. It

moved several blocks north to 104 East Twelfth Street just before the school opened for the school year in 1911.

This location had an outdoor play space but the building continued to lack standard school equipment and was less

accessible to radical families, so the school moved farther north in October 1912 to an older building in

63 East 107th Street, which had a stronger immigrant population and rested three blocks from

The

three-story building included an unusable ground level floor, a large room on the second floor where two classes

occurred at once, and a small office and kitchen on the third floor, where the adult anarchists congregated.

Enrollment rose despite the school's conditions. By 1914, the school taught 30 children and turned away half its

applicants. Historian

attributes this rise to the expressiveness and love shared between students and

their teachers,

and to a cultural "union of enthusiasms" in the Ferrer movement, in which new Jewish immigrants,

whose families tended towards warm affection and interest in education, met a body of Americans who equally wanted to

be their teachers. The day school's students were predominantly from immigrant,

worker families with

radical or anarchist politics.

Like the Association itself, early principals of the day school were native born,

largely with degrees from

and not Jewish. They were possibly propelled by their interest in upending

the status quo, altruism for the poor, and a curiosity for

in the

, as juxtaposed against their

urban, predictable upper-middle class lives.

The school moved multiple times and ultimately closed in 1953.

Students would "often" not learn to read until ten or twelve years old.

Stelton colony

[

]

Selection

[

]

Harry Kelly arranged the move to Stelton, New Jersey, about 30 miles from New York City. The anarchist printer and

Association member selected the site, a farm within two miles of a railroad station. The group bought the land and

resold plots to colonists at fair market value while setting aside land for the school. As anarchists, the colonists

did not uphold a common doctrine towards property, and disagreed on whether

should be preserved or

abolished. Plots were individually owned such that, in the spirit of anarchist volunteerism, anyone could sell and exit

the colony at their prerogative.

... They hoped the colony could form the center of a national libertarian

education movement.

Stelton Modern School

[

]

The school at Stelton was founded in 1914. It floundered in its first years. In 1916, the socialist William Thurston

Brown, who had experience operating modern schools, became Stelton's principal.

Reading lesson with Sherwood

Trask in Stelton, ca. 1922

Stelton's lessons were non-compulsory and the school had no discipline or set

curriculum, same as it was in New York City. Students joined in craft and outdoor

activities. In addition to students from colonist families, between 30 and 40

children boarded at the school in what was formerly a farmhouse. Next to the

farmhouse, Stelton built an open-air

Their winters were cold.

's daughter died of

contracted in the boarding house.

and James Dick operated the

for children, known as the Living House. The couple had formerly

opened Ferrer schools in their original England and elsewhere in the United States. They promoted freedom and

spontaneity in education. In their dorms, the Dicks taught personal responsibility.

In 1920,

became Stelton's co-principals. The couple had previously run schools in New York

City. Their methods emphasized

and crafts—e.g., pottery, gardening, carpentry, dance—held in the

schoolhouse's workshops. Alternatively, students could study in the library with James Dick. Following disagreement

with some parents, who wanted the school to put more emphasis on reading and

, the Ferms left

the school in 1925 rather than compromise their technique.

The school briefly floundered between 1925 and 1928, when the Dicks returned as co-principals. They renovated the

dilapidated children's dormitories, resurrected the children-run

, and added a range of adult activities.

The Dicks left in 1933 to pursue their longtime wish of opening their own Modern School in

The Ferms were recruited to return in the mid-1930s, when the school population declined as the

depleted family incomes. The American government established a

adjacent to and with negative effects

for the colony. Elizabeth Ferm died in 1944 and her husband retired four years later. The school had diminished to 15

pupils at the time. The school closed in 1953.

Legacy

[

]

The former Kropotkin Library,

2013

Laurence Veysey described the association as "one of the most notable—though

unremembered—attempts to create a

in America".

Of its

accomplishments, Veysey counted the association of (1) college-educated native

Americans with recent, Jewish immigrants from

, and of (2)

intellectuals with

. Veysey called the Ferrer Modern School one of the few

"truly advanced" American

of the 1920s.

The Friends of the Modern School was founded in 1973.

It was incorporated as a

in around 2005 with the mission of preserving the legacy of the

Stelton Modern School. Regular reunions of former students continued until the late 2010s and were recorded and are

available at the

archives. The records of the Friends, as well as the Modern School itself, can be

found at Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers.