History · Digital archive

Roots of the CLT Movement

Where the community land trust came from and how it grew: John Emmeus Davis’s Gardener’s Guide, a timeline of the movement and a Hall of Fame of its pioneers.

Roots & Branches: A Gardener’s Guide to the Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust was created in 2014 by John Emmeus Davis, Greg Rosenberg, and artist Bonnie Acker to preserve essential pieces of the CLT movement’s history.

Its centerpiece, the Gardener’s Guide, was written by John Emmeus Davis to document the history of the community land trust movement, with illustrations by Bonnie Acker. It now lives here on the CLT Center’s website, in four parts and 18 chapters.

Roots and Branches illustration by Bonnie Acker: a tree with houses in its branches

The Gardener’s Guide

4 parts · 18 chapters

International Precursors

4 chapters
From ancient land traditions to the Garden Cities of England, the Gramdan villages of India, and the moshav settlements of Israel.

Domestic Pioneers

4 chapters
Henry George, Ralph Borsodi, Arthur Morgan, Koinonia Farm, and other American roots of the CLT.

Seeding the First CLTs

4 chapters
From Gramdan in America and New Communities to the first rural and urban CLTs.

From Model to Movement

6 chapters
How the CLT spread after 1985, from about a dozen organizations to more than 200 by 2010.

Since 2014 the community land trust has spread far beyond the United States. You will find more about CLTs around the world throughout the CLT Center’s website, including the CLT Map.

More CLT History

On this site

Timeline of the CLT Movement

Milestones in the making of the CLT, from ancient land tenure to the present day, curated by John Emmeus Davis.

CLT Hall of Fame

Profiles of the pioneers, organizers and thinkers who seeded and spread the CLT movement.

New Communities

The story of New Communities Inc., often called the “first CLT,” which in 1970 acquired more than 5,000 acres in southwest Georgia for Black farmers and their families.

Books from Terra Nostra Press

3 books

Reweaving the Tapestry of Tenure

Interviews with eight elders of the CLT movement who championed community ownership of land. Terra Nostra Press, 2023.

On Common Ground

Twenty-six essays by forty-two scholars and practitioners from a dozen countries, tracing the growth of the international CLT movement. Terra Nostra Press, 2020.

Community Matters

Leading CLT practitioners from around the globe on the value and variety of resident engagement in CLTs. Terra Nostra Press, 2022.

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