A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company. Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community in Northwest Indiana is an example of a company town. The term is used in the US and UK to refer to a town or city where loyalty to the company that is perceived to be responsible for its success is expected and that company is, or was, a major employer in the area.
Read more about Company Town: Overview, United States, Outside The United States, Paternalism, The Pullman Lesson, Model Company Towns, The Decline of American Company Towns
Famous quotes containing the words company and/or town:
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“I’m shakin’ the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world.”
—Frances Goodrich (1891–1984)