Arden, Delaware

Arden, Delaware
Village
Arden Craft Shop/Museum/Archive
Motto: "You are welcome hither"
Location in New Castle County and the state of Delaware.
Arden Show map of Delaware Arden Show map of the US Location within the state of Delaware
Coordinates: 39°48′33″N 75°29′12″W / 39.80917°N 75.48667°W / 39.80917; -75.48667Coordinates: 39°48′33″N 75°29′12″W / 39.80917°N 75.48667°W / 39.80917; -75.48667
Country	United States
State	Delaware
County	New Castle
Founded	1900
Area
• Total	0.3 sq mi (0.7 km2)
• Land	0.3 sq mi (0.7 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	253 ft (77 m)
Population (2000)
• Total	474
• Density	1,780.5/sq mi (687.4/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	19810
Area code(s)	302 Exchange: 475
FIPS code	10-01400
GNIS feature ID	213569

Ardens Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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Area	380 acres (150 ha)
Built	1900
Architect	Price, William L.,; Stephens, Frank, et al.
Architectural style	late 19th and early 20th century American Movements, barn
NRHP Reference #	01001245
Added to NRHP	May 30, 2003

Arden is a village and art colony in New Castle County, Delaware, in the United States, founded in 1900 as a radical Georgist single-tax community by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price. The village occupies about 160 acres, with half kept as open land. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the village is 439. In 1973, the entire village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Two neighboring villages of similar size were founded on Georgist principles, Ardentown, in 1922, and Ardencroft, in 1950. In 2003 they were also listed on the NRHP as the Ardens Historic District. Many Ardenites, as the villagers of Arden are called, consider themselves to be "close-knit, nature-loving, liberal, tolerant, free-spirited, artistic, intellectual, even ex-hippie."

Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price, based on ideas such as Henry George's single-tax, William Morris’s Arts and Crafts principles, and Peter Kropotkin's theories of community. Philanthropist Joseph Fels funded the project.

The single-tax movement, popular in the U.S. and other countries from the 1890s until the 1930s, believed that the best way to raise government money was to tax only the value of unimproved land and the public-created value, like roads, added to the land. The tax, based on a systematized assessment, would recover both the value of natural resources and public investment for the public, while not impeding labor and capital from profiting from their efforts. Followers of Henry George's philosophy of economics created Arden as an experiment in the single-tax idea after a failed attempt to implement Georgism in the entire State of Delaware in the late 19th century.