Religion has played a vital role in the settling of many pre-industrial North American towns and cities. In fact, religion proved to be one of the main reasons Europeans broke their affiliation with the dictatorial and the monarchial rule in Europe and came to settle the Americas. Generally, these particular religious settlers incorporated town-planning ideas developed in Europe and translated them into their particular beliefs. However, some specific and influential settlers broke away from the norm in a progressive attempt to invent new societies in a new land based on accumulated knowledge.

John Reps, the pre-eminent American historian on town planning has this to say about those who strayed from the common ideals. "Almost from the beginning of settlement, America attracted a variety of reformers, utopians, and pariah religious sects. These dedicated... groups shunned existing cities with their temptations and distractions, preferring to create settlements in harmony with their religious, economic, or social convictions." In this paper, I will analyze and compare the influence of two different religions in the settling of their respective tow

While the town was still being laid out, converts continued to flock to both Independence and Kirtland, which continued to be occupied by some settlers of the Mormon faith. However, at the same time, local residents confronted the Mormons with threats and violence, triggered by fears of economic and political competition. Because of this violence, the Mormons were forced to flee to Illinois in 1839. Their city plan remained the same as they settled on the bank of the Mississippi River in a town that they called Nauvoo in Illinois.

ns. The first will be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons, and the second is the Church of the United Brethren, also known as the Moravians.

Many similarities existed between the two different religions and the respective town plans. The people residing in the Mormon towns, and the people residing in the Moravian towns "all worked under general church direction in a communal form of organization." All of the money and assets of families within the communities was given back to the church, so that it could be appropriated back out into the community. One common aspect that both religions shared was a fixation on the one major building as the town's focus. In Kirtland, it was The House of the Lord, and in Bethlehem it was the Gemein Haus. However, there were also differences, not just in structure, that separated the two. The Gemein Haus served more purposes in the functioning of the town than did The House of the Lord. Another aspect that both types of communities shared was that "church doctrines and settlement forms were considered to be closely related," in both religions' settlements. Both religions designed towns for a limited population within a closed society. Yet another common aspect shared by the two religions in their town plans was the importance of recruitment into their religion and communities. While the Moravians set-up missions specifically to teach Indians about Christianity in an attempt to convert them to their faith, the Mormons took a less direct approach. They too wanted to recruit individuals into their new religious practice, however they counted on the location of the town plan in Missouri to enable this to occur.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Joseph Smith, City Zion, North American, Gemein Haus, Indians Christianity, Kirtland Temple, Independence Missouri, Friedrich Marshall, John Reps, Jacksonian America, joseph smith, town plan, city zion, independence missouri, north american, moravian towns, communal form, gemein haus, jesus christ, house lord, christ latter-day saints, jesus christ latter-day, planning city zion, planned independence missouri, developing town plan,
Approximate Word count = 2593
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)