1986) explained in her book The Monopolists, the Harveys lived on Pennsylvania Avenue, had friends who lived at Park Place, and once employed a maid who lived on Baltic Avenue near Mediterranean Avenue. They also renamed the properties after streets in Atlantic City that had personal meaning for them. The Harveys loved it and soon began hosting weekly game nights. Hoskins, who had first played the game in Indianapolis, showed it to her friends and fellow Quakers Cyril and Ruth Harvey. Monopoly came to Atlantic City in 1929 via Ruth Hoskins, a teacher at the local Friends School. Scott Nearing was a radical economist who taught his students The Landlord’s Game, which he called “monopoly.” (Library of Congress) As Magie’s game spread to different locations, players added to the original board and changed the names of the properties to forge more personal connections to the game.

Nearing taught the game-which he called “monopoly” or “the monopoly game”-to his students at the Wharton School and the University of Toledo. The Arden residents who played The Landlord’s Game included author Upton Sinclair and economics professor Scott Nearing. Magie introduced The Landlord’s Game to family and friends, including the residents of Arden, Delaware-a utopian community formed in 1900 to demonstrate the virtues of Henry George’s land and tax theories. She labeled one of her corner spaces “Mother Earth.” Each time players passed Mother Earth they collected $100 in wages. Magie’s square board included twenty-two property deeds, four railroads, two public utilities, and four corner spaces. The object of The Landlord’s Game was to obtain money and wealth by purchasing properties, charging rent, and creating monopolies. Magie called her invention The Landlord’s Game. The proper history of Monopoly began in the early 1900s when a stenographer living near Washington, D.C., Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie (1866-1948), created a game to demonstrate the destructive and anti-social nature of monopolies as outlined by the famous nineteenth-century political economist Henry George (1839-97). (Photograph by Ron Jarrell for )Īlthough an unemployed Philadelphia salesman, Charles Darrow (1889-1967), was long credited as the creator of the world’s most popular board game, the origins of Monopoly stretch several decades before Parker Brothers purchased the rights from Darrow in 1935 and beyond the iconic streets of Atlantic City featured in the game. The Atlantic City street names were not adopted until 1929.

Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You BackĮssay Elizabeth Magie’s original game boards used generic business and street names, as seen on this 1903 game board from Arden, Delaware.

Original monopoly game board 1933