Lane was an admirer of Bronson Alcott, for whom Alcott House had been named. The two met in 1842, when Alcott had traveled to England to enlist support and people for his experiment in communal living. Lane offered his support and returned to the United States with Alcott on October 21, 1842. The next May, Lane purchased the Wyman Farm in Harvard, Massachusetts, for $1800. They had moved to the farm on June 1 and optimistically gave it the name "Fruitlands", despite there being only ten old apple trees on the property. A month later, Alcott announced the community in "The Dial": "We have made an arrangement with the proprietor of an estate of about a hundred acres, which liberates this tract from human ownership".