The new company town

Hershey

"He believed, along with the more forward-thinking industrialists of the age, that workers who were treated fairly and who lived in a comfortable, pleasant environment would be better workers," according to The Hershey Co. The town included housing, churches, parks, public transit, shops, a theater, community center and swimming pool. The company also provided land for schools and supplied workers with insurance and medical benefits.

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Menlo Park, Calif.

Facebook is expanding its reach beyond online communities. The social-media giant plans to build a brick-and-mortar community on 57 acres outside of Menlo Park, Calif., complete with storefronts, restaurants and other amenities and services that will cater solely to its approximately 2,000 employees, according to media reports.

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Menlo Park

The idea behind the sprawling, extensive campus is to make daily life a little easier for employees so they can do their best work and not be inconvenienced or lose focus by having to leave campus. "Zucker Berg," or "Zucker Burg," is also expected to lure and retain skilled workers, and will eventually include businesses such as a bike shop, a health clinic, gourmet coffee shops, a noodle bar, a sweet shop and a burger shack "that some quickly dubbed Zuckerberger's," one news account said. Even an old-fashioned barbershop is planned. Noted Architect Frank Gehry will be involved in the design.

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Corning, N.Y.

Home base of Corning, the global high-tech glassmaking corporation, the town developed as a crossroads and railroad town, with many glassmaking enterprises making their homes there. But as Corning, once known as Corning Glass Works, became the area's pre-eminent glass concern in the 1940s and 1950s, "it emerged as the town's benefactor — and savior," according to Hardy Green in "The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy." The company began contributing millions of dollars to help build a new library, apartments and recreation facilities.

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Corning

Corning was not founded by the company bearing its name, but some of the utopian idealism that characterized this country's earliest company towns, such as Hershey and Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, live on in Corning, Green said in his book.

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The Pullman neighborhood, Chicago

The Chicago district of Pullman was voted the world's most perfect town at the 1896 Prague International Hygienic and Pharmaceutical Exposition. George M. Pullman, owner of Pullman's Palace Car Co., a luxury railroad passenger-car manufacturer, "decided to develop a model community, a total environment, superior to that available to the working class elsewhere," wrote the Historic Pullman Foundation. "By so doing, he hoped to avoid strikes, attract the most skilled workers and attain greater productivity as a result of the better health, environment and spirit of his employees."

More than 130 years ago, the idea of a company town wasn't new, but in Pullman, the "execution of the concept was arguably the most successful," the American Planning Association notes, adding that at the time, the inclusion of indoor plumbing, gas lighting, cross ventilation and suburban park design were considered unusual for working-class neighborhoods. "A winding carriage path and circular flower beds softened the town's formal street grid. Brick was used extensively for houses, which reflected Queen Anne designs."

Declared a state historic district in 1969, and added to the National Register soon afterward, the "historic, urban community with a small-town feel" was designated among the "Great Places in America" in 2011 by the APA, citing its mix of land uses, diversity of dwellings and proximity to schools, shops, parks and public transportation: "Pullman's timeless features have contributed to the renaissance of this handsome former company town. An experiment in industrial order and community planning, the neighborhood features a design that was intelligent in 1880 and 'smart' today."

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The Pullman neighborhood

"Pullman saw it as a be-all and end-all for employees," said Jeff Soule, director for international programs and outreach for the APA. "In his era, he would have been considered a good corporate citizen, but by contemporary standards, it was pretty regimented, almost Dickensian." Even the most idealistic experiments haven't always been blessed with happy endings, noted Green, as more than a century ago the town was at the center of a highly publicized strike that damaged its reputation.

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Durango, Colo.

A former mining town and railroad center that flourished during the late 19th century, Durango was established in the 1870s by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Co. "Nestled between red sandstone bluffs in the lush Animas River Valley, Durango, Colorado, is blessed with natural beauty matched only by its colorful history," wrote the National Trust for Historic Preservation when it named the former silver and gold boomtown to its 2007 list of America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of unique and preserved communities in the United States.

"With the quick mining money came grand hotels, fine Victorian buildings and even a three-story 'skyscraper,' all of which still stand in Durango's historic district. Along Main Avenue, the big red trolley runs daily past the brick and stone buildings that still bear the names of the frontiersmen who built them." Landmarks downtown include the Strater Hotel, built in 1887 and a member of the National Trust's Historic Hotels of America. Western novel writer Louis L'Amour wrote while staying there, according to the Durango Area Tourism Office.

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Durango

Today, Durango is a draw for tourists, who can snowboard, fish, rock climb, take mining tours, see well-preserved, ancient Pueblo cliff dwellings and ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a scenic railway that has operated continuously for more than 125 years, on a 46-mile journey through the San Juan National Forest to the quaint, historic mining town of Silverton, noted the National Trust. It added that Durango is also often touted on "best of" lists as a prime location to not only visit, but also to live, invest in or retire to.

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Ybor City, Fla.

When people think of cigars, Cuba frequently comes to mind, but what is probably the world’s largest collection of buildings related to the cigar industry is in Ybor City, noted the National Park Service when it named the district a National Historic Landmark in 1990. Founded in 1886, the "Cigar Capital of the World," now a section of Tampa, is important in American industrial history and in Spanish- and Cuban-American immigration history, the NPS said. The district's buildings include factories, workers' housing, commercial buildings that served the community and ethnic clubs organized by the city's immigrants, who included Italians, Germans, Cubans and Spaniards.

"Ybor's social clubs provided 'cradle to grave health care' at a time when the HMO was not even on the drawing board," according to the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce. "These mutual aid societies provide a home base for each ethnic group and, with their cantinas, theaters and ballrooms, a range of social activities that were more sophisticated than the general environment."

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Ybor City

Today, the state's first industrial town and the birthplace of the cigar label is one of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida, the city's chamber said. "From the scent of roasting Cuban coffee early in the morning to the rhythms of Latin music late into the night, Ybor is a feast for the senses … red brick buildings, wrought-iron balconies and narrow brick streets give it an Old World charm that is a refreshing change of pace from the beach and the mall."

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Mountain View, Calif.

The search-engine giant Google plans to expand "the Googleplex," as the company refers to its headquarters, with a new corporate campus not far from its current location in Mountain View, media reports revealed several years ago. Employees already enjoy robust amenities, which include cafes and "microkitchens" stocked with healthy food, a bowling alley, a climbing wall, seven fitness centers, hundreds of bikes and scooters, free shuttle buses with Wi-Fi and even nap rooms. "Google's always believed that the right people can do big things. That's why we treat our people so well: so they can concentrate on innovating and collaborating," Stacy Sullivan, chief culture officer is quoted on the company's website.

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Mountain View

Few details of the new project were disclosed, though on-site housing was said to be included. The plan, with construction expected to begin in 2013, was met with mixed reviews. In the Mountain View Voice, a local newspaper, at the time of the announcement, one local resident commented: "Google is funding Mtn View police and firemen and schools and free internet. Don't bite the hand that feeds you." Another wrote: "This isn't Google View, this is Mountain View."

But a recent Mountain View Voice article said housing was axed by city council members in the city's general plan. "One thousand units of single-occupancy rooms, that's not a community, that's dorms," council member Ronit Bryant was quoted, adding: "It's done a lot in China. Huge factories, huge apartment blocks, I don't think everyone lives happily ever after." Member Jac Siegel said: "Housing by companies went out with the mining towns … this is not a university, people need to grow up and they need to go out" of where they work.

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Irvine, Calif.

Irvine bears the name of the Irvine Co., the business that founded it. Although it is technically not a company town, it shares the spirit of traditional company towns more so than many of the corporate campuses of today, said Soule of the APA. At its core "is a collaborative process between company and community, with good civic planning and involvement, as well as corporate responsibility," he said.

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Irvine

The city of Irvine, incorporated in 1971, is considered to be one of the largest planned urban communities in the nation, encompassing more than 65 square miles, with about 200,000 people, and featuring industrial zones, residential and recreational areas and businesses. Irvine began as Irvine Ranch, in the 1800s, and was once one of the largest private ranches in the United States, the Irvine Historical Society noted. Ranching eventually turned to farming.

"Irvine's growth as a residential and employment area was spurred by the decision to build a local University of California campus. In 1960, the Irvine Co. donated 1,000 acres and sold 500 acres to the university system for the new campus," the Orange County website said. "In 1970, the company announced an ambitious plan to turn 43 square miles of undeveloped land into a master-planned community. Rows of houses rapidly began replacing rows of crops. From 1970 to 1980, Irvine was California's fastest-growing city, known for its highly regulated residential neighborhoods.

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Kohler, Wis.

In 1913, the Kohler Co., a manufacturer of plumbing fixtures and related products, established a planned community around its factory in the outskirts of Sheboygan. "A company-built village of single- and two-family homes, a school, a village hall and a dormitory for unmarried workers surrounded their new plant," notes the Wisconsin Historical Society. Kohler was modeled on the garden cities that company President Walter J. Kohler, the founder's son, had seen in the United States and Europe. Kohler hoped "to create a more beautiful model," and worked with prominent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York's Central Park and the grounds of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.

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Kohler

Today, the village of Kohler, with a population of just under 2,000, and the surrounding area, is a tourist draw for Kohler Co.-owned lodging, spa, fine dining and Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits golf courses. Many people in Wisconsin still refer to drinking fountains as "bubblers," because the first Kohler drinking fountain was known as "The Bubbler," according to Wistravel.com.

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