Editing Hope Township, New Jersey (section)

==History==
[[File:Gemeinhaus, Hope, NJ.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|[[Gemeinhaus (Hope, New Jersey)|Moravian Church]] in Hope, now headquarters of the First Hope Bank.]]
Hope Township is one of the earliest planned communities in the United States, having been established by German [[Moravian Church|Moravians]] in 1769. Early planning maps detail planned locations of streets, homes, wells, businesses, farms, a school, tavern, and church.<ref name=NYT1975>Antonoff, Paul S. [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A1EF73454137A93C5A9178BD95F478785F9 "The Moravian Village of Hope Is Marked as a Historic Site; A Planned Community"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 7, 1973. Accessed September 11, 2013.</ref>

Prior to the arrival of the [[Moravian Church|Moravians]], there was no distinct town, but several families farmed on Jenny Jump Mountain, to the south of Hope, in surrounding area and on John Samuel Green Jr.'s farm in the center of what is now the Village. Throughout the 1760s, Moravians from [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]], [[Pennsylvania]] traveled through this area on their way to [[New England]] to establish new communities. They lodged overnight with the Green Family who were impressed with their religion and way of life.

The Moravians were a religious group whose formal name was the "Unitas Fratrum" or Unity of the Brethren. They were followers of [[Jan Hus]], the reformer from [[Prague]] who protested against the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in 1415 and was finally burned at the stake for his rebellion. These followers continued to practice his views in [[Moravia]] and [[Bohemia]] in what is now the [[Czech Republic]], hence the common name "The Moravians". In the late 17th century this group began to be persecuted and sought shelter away from Bohemia. Count Nicolas Ludwig von [[Zinzendorf]] offered them refuge on his lands east of [[Dresden]], [[Germany]], and provided a base for them to regroup and pursue their religion. That settlement which remains as the center of the worldwide Moravian religion is called [[Herrnhut]] or "The Lord's Watch" inhabitants were not only "under the Lord's watchful care" but were also to be "on watch for the Lord". With the support of Count von Zinzendorf, the Church established over 200 missionary settlements.

After a formal survey of the village completed on November 26, 1774, the community was officially accepted by The Moravian Church and the name was changed by drawing lots on February 8, 1775, from Greenland to Hope.<ref name=NYT1975/><ref name=History>[https://www.hopetwp-nj.us/history History], Hope Township. Accessed September 2, 2015. "After a formal survey of the Village completed on November 26, 1774, the community was officially accepted by The Moravian Church and the name was changed by drawing lots on February 8, 1775 from Greenland to Hope."</ref> The name derives from the "hope of immortality" of the early Moravian settlers.<ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=15 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 2, 2015.</ref>

After almost 40 years of the Moravian "experiment" in Hope, the community was sold and almost all of the Moravians returned to Bethlehem or [[Nazareth, Pennsylvania|Nazareth]], [[Pennsylvania]]. The basic reason for closing the community was that it was never self-supporting and had declined from its height of population of 147 to under 100 people by the early 19th century. The Church in Germany could no longer subsidize such a small village. Moravians worldwide were selling possessions and even some other entire communities to pay off debts incurred years earlier by Count von Zinzendorf, who heavily mortgaged his lands to give them opportunity back in Germany. Disease and a competitive gristmill also contributed to Moravian Hope's decline.<ref name=History/>