Helen & Scott Nearing
The Good Life Center
During the height of the Great Depression, Helen and Scott Nearing left their small New York City apartment and struck out for rural Vermont intent on proving that a simpler, more self-sufficient way of life was possible. They spent 20 years there proving their point before moving to Harborside, a village in the town of Brooksville overlooking Penobscot Bay, in 1952.
Two years after moving to Maine, the Nearings published Living the Good Life, a book about their homesteading experience that has inspired generations of people seeking a simpler, self-reliant life. After publication of their book and as the back-to-the-land movement gained popularity in the 1960s and ’70s, people from all over the country traveled to their home to see how they lived and learn how to do it for themselves.
After the Nearings died, their homestead became the Good Life Center, a nonprofit that preserves their home and perpetuates their ideas and philosophy through educational programming. At the end of 2025, the Nearings’ 4.7-acre property with the stone chalet-style home they built by hand, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The property is open to the public seasonally.
Author: Stephanie Bouchard
