Arden Craft Shop Museum

About

The Arden Craft Shop Museum is a small museum that collects, preserves and exhibits the history and arts of the three Ardens.

Story

The three Ardens, consisting of Arden, Ardentown and Ardencroft, are Single Tax and Arts & Crafts communities. The Single Tax was an economic theory proposed by Henry George, an American economist and philosopher in the late nineteenth-century. George felt that a land value tax was the most fair and equitable tax, and felt that any income tax was unfair by nature. The Ardens also were founded on the ideals of William Morris, as an Arts and Crafts community. The Arts & Crafts movement was a reaction against the industrial revolution and valued hand-crafted goods and the incorporation of individualistic design.

Arden, the first community, was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price after an unsuccessful campaign to have Delaware switch to the Single Tax. Ardentown would founded in 1922, and Ardencroft in 1950. The Ardens continue to use the Single Tax and to serve as an artist community and has many examples of American Arts & Crafts architecture.

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