Community

When you were a child, did you have the freedom to play outside for hours at a time, with your friends and without adult supervision? If you are a parent, do you wish your children could grow up with the same freedom, in a place where you can send them outside, knowing they will find friends to play with and streams and fields to explore, but never be far from the eyes and ears of friendly adult neighbors?

First Light Neighborhood & Farm will give residents the opportunity to know their neighbors in a way that typical rural subdivisions—houses scattered throughout the forest, with wooded buffers intended to afford the much-sought "privacy" but primarily serving to isolate households from each other—do not. The neighborhood and houses will be designed in a way to encourage community to develop spontaneously and naturally. Inviting, broad porches and other outdoor or semi-outdoor spaces will maximize opportunities for neighbors to see and greet each other. The community house, where neighbors can meet for meals, celebrations, and other gatherings, will be a focal point. Near the community house will be a small playground, sitting area, and community garden plots.

The Four Corners area of Wilton is home to four institutions, all connected by a common philosophical heritage: The High Mowing School, Pine Hill Waldorf School, the Center for Anthroposophy, and the Temple-Wilton Community Farm are all inspired by the work of Austrian educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Families who send their children to the two schools share an interest in Steiner's educational philosophy, which emphasizes the spiritual, as well as the practical, development of the child, and the Farm's members in Steiner's biodynamic theory of agriculture (similar to organic methods, but again, emphasizing the spiritual aspects of growing food). However, most of these families live not in Wilton but scattered throughout the region, some coming from as far away as central Massachusetts (and in the case of High Mowing, the nation's only boarding Waldorf school, from around the globe).

First Light Neighborhood is an ideal housing opportunity for those already involved in one of these communities. However, all are welcome at First Light, regardless of your background or philosophy.