Stelle, Illinois

Stelle is an unincorporated community located in Rogers Township in northern Ford County, Illinois, United States. Its estimated population as of 2013 is 100.

Although Stelle started as an intentional community in the early 1970s, it became a simple homeowner's association in 1982 when the community opened up and continues on to this day.

Historical overview
Stelle is a small village in N.E. Illinois that began as an intentional community during the early 1970s. The founding residents belonged to a recently formed group from Chicago, whose vision was to create a more sustainable and compassionate way of living. The group purchased a farm in the northern tip of Ford County and built a traditional-looking suburban community. Stelle maintained itself as a private community for about ten years, at which point a majority of the residents decided to govern themselves through a conventional homeowner's association and become an open village with no formal residency requirements.

During those first ten years, Stelle residents discovered that it is easier to agree on a positive vision for the future than to agree on the steps necessary to manifest that future. Stelle was one of thousands of intentional communities that sprang up during the 1960s and 1970s whose highly idealistic visions for the future have not yet been achieved.

After Stelle transitioned to a "normal" village in 1982, it became notable for its suburban design, the solar panels on many homes, and the residents' enthusiasm for lifelong education and co-operative enterprises. The village has its own telephone company, which provides telephone, television, and internet access. Stelle also boasts a community garden co-op, a tool co-op, and a Monday night dinner co-op, and hosts a variety of educational events that are open to the public.

Early history
Stelle was founded in 1973 by the Stelle Group, a Chicago organization created by Richard Kieninger, a writer and teacher who was also instrumental in founding Adelphi, Texas. During the 1950s, Kieninger had been a student of the Lemurian Fellowship in Ramona, California, where he was instructed in a set of beliefs called “Lemurian Philosophy.”