Vermont commune vibes from photographer Peter Simon. Simon (brother of Carly and son of the founder of Simon & Schuster) started Tree Frog Commune in 1970 with Harry Saxman, after they bought an 80-acre farm down the road from Total Loss Farm for $62,500. It was located in Guilford, VT, just over the Massachusetts line, and had a looser “gentleman farmer” vibe than the more hard-core communes further north.
Tree Frog Commune only lasted a few years. After he sold the farm, Simon bought a shack in Gay Head (now Aquinnah) on Martha’s Vineyard, and was married to his wife Ronni on the Gay Head cliffs in a ceremony officiated by Ram Dass.
Hard to get an exact count but Vermont had probably around 200 communes at one point, making it one of the highest per-capita concentrations of communes in the country, with names like New Morning, Wooden Shoe, Toad Hall, Mullein Hill and Pie in the Sky.
See more of Peter’s photos of Tree Frog Commune on the Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth site.
