Horses and carriages clattering down brick lined streets covered with a faint dusting of snow move past wooden doorways hung with boughs of holly and pines.

This could be a century or two ago, but instead it is the holiday season in New Harmony, a tiny town of less than 1,000, located on the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana.

Tall firs and pines as well as leafless magnolia and rain trees decorated with twinkling lights tower over centuries old homes. Gateways open on to peaceful gardens, now dormant in the cold winter air, the fountains empty, but the benches still inviting rest and the grounds a chance for contemplation.

Parks and labyrinths including one based on the sacred geometry of the medieval Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France, offer the chance to meditate and achieve peace. Horse-drawn carriages travel past charmingly preserved buildings at least 100 years old.

New Harmony was founded in 1814 and the years since have been kind. The National Trust for Historic Preservation placed New Harmony on its Annual List of America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations and it is described as a southern Indiana jewel.

The quiet of winter is the perfect time to visit New Harmony. There are eight Harmonist sites and 25 Harmonists buildings in what was once a 19th century commune and is now called Historic New Harmony, many open for tours, some still privately owned. Costumed historic interpreters recreate life back then, making candles and rope and spinning yarn.

"Our tours are visitor driven experiences," says Connie Weinzapfel, director of Historic New Harmony. "Our interpreters talk to the guests and take them to what they'd be interested in, whether its science, decorative arts, architecture or crafts."

Tours start with a short movie about the history of Historic New Harmony at the award winning Athenaeum, a modernistic white structure of jutting angles, squares and triangles that serves as the visitor center. The building is the work of Richard Meier, a well known New York-based architect.

After the tour, stroll over to the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art and see Silver Clouds by Andy Warhol, an installation of 40 silver pillow shaped Mylar balloons filled with helium and air that float through the gallery's main exhibition space.

Then celebrate the coming of 2008 with a New Year's Eve package that includes a candlelight dinner at the Red Geranium whose menu features both the nouveau (certified Angus beef tournedos sprinkled with blue cheese crumbles served over crispy potatoes Anna with grilled asparagus and red wine reduction) and the traditional (cast iron roasted chicken over creamy cheddar grits with braised collard greens and brown gravy and apple cobbler with blueberry, pecans and vanilla ice cream.)

The New Year's Eve package also includes a room at the New Harmony Inn.

To understand Historic New Harmony, it's important to have some background.

Though communes might seem like a 20th century sort of thing, back in 1814, George Rapp bought 20,000 acres of land for a commune dedicated to the Swabian work ethic of work combined with the Benedictine rule of prayer. The commune was so successful that Lord Byron and Duke Bernhard of Weimar visited. But Rapp and his group moved on and the commune was sold in 1824 to Robert Owen, who wanted to create a perfect society achieved by free education as well as the elimination of social classes and personal wealth. And for a while it worked.

Between 1830 to 1860, New Harmony was considered one of the most important training and research centers for geological studies in the country.

Members of Owen's family are still involved in Historic New Harmony and are dedicated to his vision, which is why this perfect preserved in amber piece of history still survives.

HOW TO GET THERE: Take U.S. 41 to State Highway 63 to Terre Haute. Reconnect with U.S. 41 on the southern edge of the town and follow it to I-64 South. Follow I-64 to Exit 4 at Griffin, Ind. Travel seven miles south on Highway 69 to New Harmony. Trip time is approximately 5.5 hours.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: For information on Historic New Harmony, call (800) 231-2168 or www.usi.edu/hnh.

For information on the New Harmony Inn and the Red Geranium, call (800) 782-8605 or www.newharmonyinn.com.

YOU'LL LIKE: Just blocks away from Historic New Harmony is the equally historic downtown, which attracts artists and artisans and is a collection of charming shops and restaurants housed in buildings dating back at least a century. Stop by Arbor House & Garden (the building dates back to 1830) for collectibles, garden art and prints. Home decor enthusiasts will want t visit Design Bank 505, which sells international fair crafts.

Primitive and Early American antiques can be found at several stores including Firehouse Antiques, housed in a century old firehouse. Antique Doll Shoppe and Tea Room with its doll exhibits, displays, sewing and doll supplies as well as a tea room offering light meals. The downtown is dotted with parks.

KIDS WILL LIKE: William Maclure, a wealthy industrialist, established The Working Men's Institute, in 1838 in New Harmony to provide both library and learning experiences for the working man. Eventually 144 Working Men's Institutes were built throughout Indiana, though now the only one remaining is here in New Harmony and is the state's oldest continuously operating public lending library.

The Institute harbors a small upstairs museum filled with a wide assortment of exhibits from the curious (an eight-legged calf born in the early 1900s), the historic including an oval shaped baby coffin, painted with pastoral scenes, brought along on a voyage to the United States by parents with a sickly daughter, to the scientific -- a freshwater mussel shell collection.

AND DON'T MISS: Philip Johnson, another award winning New York architect, created the Roofless Church that is just a stroll from buildings dating back almost two centuries. It's a large walled expanse of lawn, gardens and fountains. In the middle is a shake shingled covered dome, looking somewhat like an inverted tulip, floating above benches and a statue titled the Holy Spirit.