The Hopedale Community was founded in Milford, Massachusetts, in 1843 by Adin Ballou.
He and his followers purchased 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land on which they built homes for the community members, chapels and the factories for which the company was initially formed.
The area was later split from Milford and became the town of Hopedale, Massachusetts.
Ballou believed that he could create a utopian community blending the features of a factory town with those of a religion-based commune.
He called this "Practical Christianity" but unlike several similar communities, it was important to Ballou that Hopedale would not be isolated from the rest of society.
The community stood for temperance, abolitionism, women's rights, spiritualism, and education.
[1] Fourteen years after the land was purchased, Hopedale went bankrupt.
The intentional community was converted into a textile factory town.
If a person were to leave the Community, they were given either their initial investment or ninety percent of that which was credited to them.
Though Ballou stated that men and women were equal members of the society, he commented that male and female roles were set by their creator.
This meant that within the community, men and women were allowed to take part in democratic processes, but women were, for the most part, given domestically oriented jobs while the men were the governmental leaders.
There was even a special sector of the "Hopedale Industrial Army" that doubled as a traditional sewing circle for women to socialize while working.
According to Edward K. Spann's book, Hopedale: From Commune to Company Town, 1840–1920, Abby H. Price, an elected official of the Hopedale community, acted as a spokeswoman for equal rights and work compensation.
Hopedale Community was founded upon Ballou's Universalist beliefs about Christianity.
The Christian lifestyle at Hopedale was more concerned with equality, love and sharing than it was about the dogmas of religion.