From its settlement in 1798 as a rugged New England farm, to the illustrious Montague Farm commune (1968-2002), to Zen Peacemakers (2002-2011), 177 Ripley Road seems to inspire magic. Its legacy is multifaceted: community building, spirituality, art, environmentalism and activism.

In one of life’s great ironies, we have none other than J. Edgar Hoover to thank for the purchase of Montague Farm in 1968 by members of Liberation News Service. For as the violent protests of that year unfolded, Hoover’s FBI began harassing the then-Washington DC based service, which provided college campuses with an anti-Vietnam war alternative to the Associated Press. The Farm’s purchase was financed by several showings of “Magical Mystery Tour” at NYC’s Filmore East (how the rights were secured from the Beatles must be an interesting story!). An unfortunate and in many ways typical political split had occurred in the LNS staff, so printing equipment was taken from New York to the Farm, and afterwards LNS continued in two locations. "

While Liberation New Service was only published in Montague for a short time, "Montague Farm" became a node of the counter-culture, with important contributions in the areas of alternative lifestyle, organic farming and sustainable resource use. And perhaps no single act had as powerful a galvanizing effect on the anti-nuclear movement as Farm member Sam Lovejoy’s destruction of a nearby nuclear weather tower on February 22, 1974. A high profile trial followed, the anti-nuclear movement grew and the plant was cancelled. Sam and Harvey Wasserman went on to organize the 1979 No Nukes concerts at NYC’s Madison Square Garden, which helped fund safe energy initiatives for years after. For the full story on this, see the contribution below from Harvey and Anna Gyorgy.

In the words of author Tom Fels, “From the beginning, Montague Farm commune has played the role of safe haven -- a place where people, even people of very different persuasions and beliefs, can live as they think they ought to, and in the process offer a model for others. It has been a base for social change, as well as a nurturing environment for individual growth. “Probably,” Tom continues, “these qualities reflect its earlier history as a New England farm”, which left us the chestnut structures of the barn and farmhouse, open fields bordered by stone walls and a venerable maple grove which rises up along the farm’s northern edge. Certainly they reflect the decision in 2002 to sell the Farm to a socially active Zen Buddhist community, which bequeathed a state of the art conference center and a large water system. And hopefully they will extend to its future as a retreat center and vibrant, community hub.

READ MORE ABOUT THE "NO NUKES MOVEMENT" HERE

READ MORE ABOUT THE COMMUNE FARM HERE

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