Kings Palace photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Caption reads: "Kings Palace, Zoar." The Kings Palace, or the Number One House as it was later called, served as the home of Joseph Bimeler, leader of the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Built in 1835, the house was originally intended as a senior citizen home for Society members, but that purpose was rejected by the elders of Zoar. Instead, Bimeler occupied the home until his death in 1853. A group of separatists from Germany, eventually known as Zoarites, established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County in 1817. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they had separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole. In exchange for their work, the Society would provide for them. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the separatists experienced economic prosperity. Due in part to influences from the outside world and the death of original residents, the remaining members decided to dissolve the society in 1898, and its property was divided among the Zoarites. It was an end to the communal experience at Zoar. The Village is now an Ohio Historical Society site and is open to the public as Zoar Village State Memorial. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F01_021
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.; Society of Separatists of Zoar--History
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)