Shaker Cottage Industry

Shakers' needs were no different from those of any rural population in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Not yet having access to cheap, mass-produced goods, the communities had to produce most of what they needed, from food to clothing to furniture. But unlike the world's people, they had many hands to do the work and could enjoy certain economies of scale. This first photo shows a tailor shop with wooden patterns and cutting counters. With up to 300 members at Hancock, there was always a demand for garments from women's dresses and shawls to men's shirts and trousers. The Shaker cloak became an item sought by the world's people and grew to be a source of needed cash for the communities.

Shaker oval boxes and carriers were used for a wide range storage and transport. They were not unique in concept, but their superiority in design and workmanship made them much sought after. They were produced in the thousands and today are symbols of Shaker life and quality. Reproductions are widely sold.

The Shaker chair was a refined version of common chairs of the time. Their unique combination of strength and lightness have made them classics. Many communities had their chair shops and sold their excess production, although it was Mt. Lebanon alone that developed a truly commercial enterprise. And experts can determine which community made a chair by the slight differences between them. The brethren made the frames and the sisters wove the cotton tapes most commonly used in the seats and sometimes in the backs of chairs. Weaving the tapes into the seats could have been done by men or women.

Turning the wood to produce the rounded posts, stretchers, and finials was often on a treadle lathe. The brother turning the wood also produced the power that turned it. Eventually Hancock developed a water-powered mill that we'll see shortly.

Now here's an item I wish I had. It's a chair vise. It clamps the chair and holds it at working height. The base swivels to allow the chair to be turned continuously as you proceed with weaving strips first into the top side and then the bottom and back again. Since I have six dining chairs to reseat this winter, this device could really speed up the job.

Here's an example of Shaker ingenuity and invention. The brothers, like men everywhere, had a habit of leaning back in their chairs. That not only made dents in wood floors, but also sometimes ended with the brother falling over backwards. These tilters built into the bottoms of the back legs give continuous full contact with the floor when the sitter leans back, which both protects the floor and provides increased stability.

I mentioned the water-powered mil. Here beneath its floor is the turbine that replaced the original waterwheel.

That power was transferred by belts and shafts to run all sorts of woodworking tools. It also powered washing machines housed in the laundry, elsewhere in the building.

Being a communal society, the Shakers had what was in effect a commercial laundry. The sisters rotated job assignments each month so everyone shared both the good and the bad jobs throughout the village. Here in one room of the laundry are tables for folding clothes and racks for drying them. The large stove in the center of the room was designed to heat the flat irons they used.

With that huge stove in the room, I don't know why they needed this one, but it does illustrate Shaker innovation. There is a stove in the top photo of the tailor shop that represents the basic Shaker stove. It consists of a firebox connected to a stovepipe. A superheater has been added to the one above. The purpose of the superheater is to simply slow down the escape of hot gases from the firebox to allow more heat to escape into the room. And they do just that.

And finally, there was production of fabric. Wool, cotton, and linen all were spun into yarn and woven into fabric. The Pleasant Hill Shakers in Kentucky had a silk worm industry, as well, and shipped silk and silk fabric to other communities. I'm not aware of Shakers ever selling fabric to the world, but they did sell finished goods, from linens to garments. But the major part of their output was clothing for their own community.

After the Civil War when manufacturing took off in this country, the Shakers could buy bolts of cloth cheaper than they could make it. They lamented the inferior quality of the fabric they bought, but with shrinking membership had little choice but to buy instead of make.

The Round, Stone Barn

The round, stone barn is the Hancock Shaker Village's signature structure. Round barns are not unique to Shaker sites, nor are they a Shaker invention. But the barn at Hancock combines the elements of Shaker utility, efficiency, and simplicity into a unusually attractive piece of architecture. The only round barn every built at a Shaker site, this 1826 dairy barn is a model of labor-saving efficiency. Built to handle 52 milk cows, it has ground-level access on all three floors.

An outside ramp  allows wagons to enter the top level where the hay would be unloaded into the middle of the building. Empty wagons would then be driven on around that level to exit through the same door they entered.

Workers on the main floor could then place hay directly into the mangers in front of the cattle. A central open column allowed air to circulate to remove moisture and reduce the possibility of spontaneous combustion in the hay stored around it.

Cattle would be led into stanchions where their heads would be secured, but that allowed them freedom to feed while being milked. The cattle stood on a raised floor that placed the milk buckets on a different level from any feces that were deposited while the cattle were locked into the stanchions. On the lower level immediately behind the cattle were trapdoors that allowed the manure to be shoveled into the manure pit below, where it was accumulated until taken out and spread on crops as fertilizer. There also was ground-level access to the manure pit.

Interior lighting was accomplished by adding a clerestory to the barn when the original, conical roof was replaced. The central ventilation shaft terminates in a cupola. I found the framing of the roof interesting.

Each of the beams supporting the roof has been split to spread the weight of the roof evenly as the diameter increases. Bolts through the beams prevent them from splitting beyond the intended point. The result is a fan of timbers that presents a pleasing geometry as well as being functional.

The Shakers continued to have a dairy operation at Hancock up until shortly before the village closed.

Silent Saturday

Hancock Shaker Village, part two

The brick dwelling at Hancock Shaker Village was essentially a dormitory where the brothers and sisters of the center family lived and took their meals. So let's start with a dormitory room. At the height of the Shaker villages, up to eight Shakers could share a "retiring room." The number would have declined along with a declining membership. Beds, of course, were singles or what we would call twin size. Early buildings might have a fireplace for heat, which was quickly replaced with small, more-efficient stoves. The stoves might have been of Shaker design, but were purchased from commercial foundries. In the photograph above the wall behind one of the beds is draped with a wall hanging made to reduce drafts in winter. There is a Mt. Lebanon-style straight chair beside the bed and a small wash stand with a towel rack above. The towel rack rests on the ubiquitous pegs. We have a similar one (a reproduction) in our upstairs guest bathroom. A tall chest occupies the far wall.

A second retiring room was billed as a "brethren's room." Chairs are lined up for conversation. I can't help thinking this was done by a female museum curator to take a jibe at the men for having leisure not afforded the Shaker sisters. A chair is hung upside down on the left wall. This common practice was to free floor space for cleaning or just moving around, and to keep dust from accumulating on the seating surface. Against the rear wall is a classic two-drawer blanket chest, a supposed forerunner of the modern chest of drawers. Above it hangs a bed key, used to tighten the beds' rope foundations for greater support. The small mirror on the left wall complies with the requirement that "looking glasses" be no taller than 18 inches nor wider than 12 inches. Narcissism was not a Shaker virtue.

This room is set up to display some of the Hancock artifacts. There is an assortment of rocking chairs, which could have been made at Hancock or other villages. A large chest of drawers sits among a variety of built-in storage units. Built-ins were common in many Shaker villages, but the ones in the Hancock brick dwelling are probably the most numerous and certainly the most diverse. I think they're also the finest. Woven rag rugs sewn together into floor coverings are typical of other sites, as well.

One room was given over to a paint historian who analyzed paint remnants barely visible on some of the woodwork. The result when restored to its original brightness was a shock to many Shaker enthusiasts. But it does make the room look cheerful.

This room is set up as an infirmary. Please keep in mind we're looking at 1840-1850 here. There is what appears to be a primitive walker by the table to the left. Across the room is an adult-sized cradle, used to gently rock the sick person to sooth them. The device in the cradle is a bed warmer, to be heated and placed between the sheets in winter before the bed is occupied. The low-backed rocker next to the cradle was a first for me. I've seen low-backed dining chairs, made to slip out of the way under a table. What's the purpose of a low back on a rocker? Perhaps to keep the attendant from getting too comfortable and neglecting the patient? Two hospital beds are against the back wall, one that can be elevated, the other apparently suitable for traction. Finally, there is a fine one-drawer blanket chest in the back, as well.

One side of the dining room is shown above; there is that much again behind the camera. Eight tables x 8 chairs means 64 members could eat at a time, the sisters on one side of the room and brothers on the other. The chairs are the low-back style designed to slide under the table and out of the way when not in use. Meals would be eaten in contemplative silence during the early years, although the rule was relaxed in later years. I want to point out two architectural features in this room.

Taking a closer look at one of the deep windows, the sides slant inward to allow more light into the room as the sun position changes. Also note the small thumb screws in the frame.  Rather than being counter balanced or propped open, these have a compression strip on each side. Loosen the screws and the window moves up or down, tighten it and the window is held at that height.

A dumbwaiter is built into either end of the room. The dining room is directly above the kitchen and the dumbwaiter transports food and dishes between the two. The narrow door open beside the dumbwaiter provides access to its workings.

This last photo for today brings the period being interpreted to the early twentieth century. Shakers, like the world's people, were not immune to the call of fashion. Both the bed and the bentwood rocker are of Shaker manufacture, but lack the simple, clean lines of classic Shaker furniture. Victorian influence is also visible in the mirror above the sink. We've seen even more extreme examples of Victorian influence at other Shaker villages.

Hancock Shaker Village, part one

 Hancock Shaker Village, near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was the third Shaker community established, after Watervliet and New Lebanon. Brought together by Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright in 1783, it was formed with land donated to the society by converts in the area. It eventually grew to more than 300 Shakers living on 3,000 acres. The last Shakers left in 1959 and the site has been a museum since 1960. I first visited there in 1974.

The panorama, above, is the view visitors get on entering the site. A new entrance complex contains a ticket counter, introductory displays, a sandwich shop, and a museum store. From there the tour is self guiding, although there are costumed interpreters in the dwelling and some other buildings. In the panorama is the site's signature structure, the round stone barn. It is sufficiently important that I will devote a blog to it later. At the far left is the combined carpentry shop and laundry. The dwelling is immediately to the right of the carpentry shop/laundry.

A combined carpentry shop and laundry? What were they thinking? They were thinking power. This building had an aquaduct carrying water from the hill above the village. It initially had a waterwheel, but that was eventually replaced with a turbine, which remains operable today. We'll take a closer look in a blog devoted to Shaker industry.

The 1830 brick dwelling is one of the finest found at any of the Shaker sites. It housed 100 men and women in a dormitory setting. The sexes were separated by living areas and used different entrances and stairs.  Elders and eldresses oversaw the well being of the community and served as ministers. They were separated from the other Shakers in living and dining accommodations after 1845. Deacons and deaconesses assigned and oversaw work for men and women, respectively. The nature of "men's work" and "women's work" kept the sexes separated in the workplace, as well. There were five other families and more than 300 believers at Hancock at its height.

Here a costumed interpreter answers questions for a couple following a guided tour of the dwelling.

Although the "official position" was that building for beauty was superfluous, Shakers here and elsewhere still slipped great beauty into the construction of their buildings. The rope hanging down was for ringing a bell to call the Shakers to meals.

Across the road from the brick dwelling sits the meeting house. This 1793 structure was built by Shaker Moses Johnson at the Shirley, Massachusetts, Shaker community. It was moved here in 1962 to replace a similar Moses Johnson building that had been torn down in 1938 because it was no longer used. I'll have more to say about Moses Johnson and his meeting houses in a later blog.

The Trustees' Office is where the Shaker village interacted with the world. Both male and female trustees lived in this building, operated a store, hired any help needed, provided meals and lodging to any visitors to the village, and generally carried on all business with the outside world. The building was begun in 1813 and was enlarged in 1852 and again in 1895. The building was given Victorian architectural touches during that final enlargement. The Shakers used this building up until the village closed in 1959. The Hancock web site states that the Shakers came here to play the organ and watch television.

Watch television? Yep. Shaker museums can give us a false impression of life in a Shaker community if they're not careful. The communities started into decline following the U.S. Civil War due sometimes to war-time depletion of resources or, more likely, inability to attract converts due to improved economic conditions. Museum villages tend to interpret life there during the time of greatest success, which typically would be the period from 1840 to 1850. But we know that Shaker communities were very aware of the technological advances going on around them and were quick to adopt any that could prove useful to community life. The photo above is of the Hancock village's first automobile, a 1923 Reo. Large even by 1923 standards, this car was well suited to transporting members of a communal society.

Tomorrow we'll take a look inside the brick dwelling and I'll subject you to the babblings of an architectural junkie, as well as those of a social history nut. In my view, it's one of the most interesting of Shaker buildings.