On this day in 1841, a group of Boston-area utopians purchased Brook Farm in West Roxbury. The writer Nathaniel Hawthorne spent six months there and later wrote about his experiences in his satirical novel Blithedale Romance. Although the venture was short-lived and imperfect, its members made a serious effort to create an alternative to a society increasingly marked by inequality. Brook Farm required everyone to share equally in the work of the community. Cooperation was to replace competition, and hard work was to be leavened with stimulating intellectual and social activities. When fire destroyed the main building in 1847, the group was forced to sell the farm. In 1988 the Commonwealth acquired the property, and today it is a state park.