In 1973, a motley group of young writers, artists, political activists, and recent college graduates purchased over 80 acres of land outside West Danby, New York to build, with their own hands, a two story home that became Lavender Hill — one of the few gay and lesbian communes in the Back to the Land movement. In a time when over a dozen “straight” communes thrived in Tompkins County outside Ithaca, Lavender Hill, which expanded to include several homes across the property, was a remarkable experiment in collaboration, gender exploration, and social and political integration between young gay and lesbians in the post-Stonewall era.
