Getting restless

As we head into the downside of winter, I'm feeling a need to hit the road. The days are getting longer and we're having more sun, yet the air remains chilled and the wind has sharp teeth. It's what they call "second winter" in the mountains of New Mexico. My thoughts, however, are jumping ahead to summer.

Not just summer, but to  the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. Since it originally was a religious community, let's start in the church or meeting house.

It's a large space with no interior supports to interfere with the movement of worshipers during their dances or marches. And the acoustics are unbelievable.

The Centre, or Church, Family dwelling is just across the road in front of the meeting house and serves as the major museum building on the site.

Step inside and you will be greeted by a tour guide who will give you an overview of the village and the museum. You are then free to wander about the three floors and basement at your own pace. There are always guides around to answer your questions.

The dwelling is essentially a large dormitory with its own kitchen, dining, and common areas. The photo above shows a typical "retiring room," or bedroom. At the height of the village, a room might sleep 3 to 5 Shakers. As membership declined, Believers eventually got their own rooms.

Unlike some Shaker museums, the items on display here are all authentic, Shaker-made antiques. You'll find no reproductions displayed here, although the lodging available to overnight guests has only reproductions, for obvious reasons.

Stairways flank the central hall on each floor. Women would have been restricted to using the one on the left; men would have been restricted to the one on the right. Although floors were coed, just like in college, the women's and men's retiring rooms are on opposite sides of the central hall.

The top floor was reserved for storage, here being cases for out-of-season clothing. Natural light illuminates the storage area.

I think it's time to get the calendar out and start planning a trip. Gotta find a cure for cabin fever.

A Visitor's Guide to Shaker sites

If there is anyone still with me after my extensive Shaker tour, thank you for sticking it out. What? You now want to go off on a visit of your own? Need help deciding where to go? Of the 19 communities begun by the Shakers, only nine welcome visitors today. Assuming you only want to visit one or two, here are my suggestions.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, KY.  Founded 1814, closed 1910. Being our nearest and most-familiar site (we've been supporting members more than 30 years), I was careful about ranking it first. Several factors contribute to that ranking, not the least of which is their overnight lodging. Visitors stay in historic buildings in modernized (i.e., individual bathrooms) rooms fitted with Shaker reproduction furniture. A museum for more than 45 years, they have operations well honed. Four family sites are preserved and a varied interpretive program makes repeat visits as interesting as the first.

Canterbury, New Hampshire. Founded 1793, closed 1992 (date last resident died). Canterbury is a very important site, and preserves more of the complexity of a Shaker village than the others. They began operating as a museum while there were Shakers still in residence. They have an excellent food service and museum store, but do not have overnight lodging. So visitors miss out on a key part of the Shaker experience.

Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Founded 1790, closed 1960. Another mature museum, they do just about everything well. They have food service, but they have no overnight lodging. The Round Stone Barn, the Church Family Dwelling, and the Moses Johnson Meeting House are some of the very finest examples of Shaker architecture that exist.

Any of my top three picks will provide an excellent introduction to Shaker history, life, and art. A choice can safely be based on proximity and convenience. Each offers plenty to encourage repeat visits, as well. Those who become serious students of Shaker will want to visit the other six, especially South Union Shaker Museum, Auburn, KY (top photo; founded 1811, closed 1922), and Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village, New Lebanon, New York (founded 1787, closed 1947). Mt. Lebanon has the potential for joining the top ranking once the Shaker Museum and Library finishes restoring the North Family site and establishes their full operation there.

Tomorrow it's on to other things.

Canterbury Shaker Village, part 2

In addition to the meeting house and dwellings, Shaker villages were packed with all sorts of buildings that supported their lives and commerce. For example, the yellow building immediately behind the meeting house was the ministry shop.

The elders and eldresses of the ministry lived apart from the community, typically in the upstairs of the meeting house, but they were not excused from contributing to the common good. They would practice whatever trades they were adept at in a ministry shop located near the meeting house, and the products of their labors would be either used by members of the community or sold to contribute cash to the society.

There were barns to house the village's livestock. This 1819 horse barn is a striking example of New England architecture with its shingle siding.

Every village had a Trustees' Office; this is Canterbury's, built in 1831. Here the village trustees would conduct business with the world and overnight guests would be housed and fed. There were both male and female trustees, and as in the rest of the village the sisters and brothers had their own sections in which to live and work.

It took large quantities of wood to cook and provide heat in winter. This is the last remaining wood shed at Canterbury. A nearby identical one was destroyed when the 1858 cow barn burned in 1973. The foundation stones for the cow barn can be seen in the gap between the woodshed and the yellow building at left.

A display near the former barn has photos. It was 200 feet x 45 feet and housed 100 dairy cattle. A 25 foot ramp provided access at either end. These ramps survive.

In 1910 the Shakers built a powerhouse and had electric lights in 16 buildings. The powerhouse contained a gasoline-powered, direct-current generator and storage batteries. Lines were run to the village in 1925 and the Shakers then purchased power from the local utility, but the powerhouse was kept as a backup.

I like this picture because it illustrates so well the Shaker emphasis on utility over aesthetics. When electricity was distributed through the village, they simply strung wires from building to building instead of building power lines with poles to support them. This building is the 1816 Sisters' Shop.

The 1785 Syrup Shop predates the Shakers at Canterbury. It belonged to Benjamin Whitcher, an early convert whose lands became part of the Canterbury holdings. It may have been used as a lodging in the beginning. The Shakers used it to make medicinal syrups, most famously Thomas Corbett's Compound Concentrated Syrup of Sarsaparilla, known as "The Great Purifier of the Blood and other Fluids of the Body." Before we condemn the Shakers for peddling snake-oil patent medicines, let's keep in mind that Queen Victoria stood at the head of the greatest opium distribution system ever. Times change.

Although celibate, there were always children in Shaker villages. Some came with parents who had been converted with the families broken up, others were orphans, and still others were dropped off by destitute parents who could no longer provide for them. No child was turned away. They were fed, clothed, and educated, both in academic subjects and the trades. On becoming of age, they were free to leave or stay and sign the covenant. Typically girls received classroom instruction in summer, boys in winter. And at Canterbury, they had indoor toilets!

OK, it's not exactly what you thought, but they were indoor. The children did not have to venture outside to answer nature's calls; it was just down a hall from the classroom. And I can imagine how much warmer it was on cold winter mornings.

There's much, much more to see at Canterbury, but I'll cut it off here. The museum has an excellent web site with a section on historic buildings that is well worth visiting. For your convenience, you can do that by clicking here.

A last word about the final photograph. Here there are dry-stack stone fences, as we saw at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky. But unlike the flat limestone rocks in Kentucky, these are made of rocks that were rounded by glaciers thousands of years ago.

Enfield, New Hampshire

The Enfield Shaker village is one of the newest museums, and the site was greatly compromised before the museum was founded. Following the departure of the last Shaker residents for Canterbury village in 1923, the site was sold to the Missionaries of La Salette, a Roman Catholic order, in 1927. The La Salettes established a school, seminary, and conference center at the site. They also built a Classical Revival church next to the Great Stone Dwelling, the site's signature Shaker building. The site sits on the shore of Lake Mascoma, so when the La Salettes sold the site in 1985 a large number of private homes were built there. The non-profit museum began acquiring parts of the site in 1986.

The Great Stone Dwelling was built between 1837 and 1841 and designed to house more than 150 members. The brethren entered from one end of the building, the sisters from the other. Unfortunately the Enfield museum does not allow photography inside the building and the tour is guided, so there was no chance to steal a quick shot. There are many reproductions mixed in with original Shaker furniture pieces, however.

The museum owns the 1849 Mill/Machine Shop, but it's not on the tour. The museum now uses it for special events and rents it out for meetings and weddings.

The 1820 West Brethren's Shop is open, and at the time we visited, was self-guided. One of the last Shaker brothers at Enfield lived above the shop.

Probably the most interesting artifact in the shop was this section of pipe made from a bored-out log. The Shakers brought water into the village from a reservoir on Mt. Assurance across the road by means of such. The water was both for consumption and power.

I mentioned the Classical Revival church built by the La Salettes. It's now owned by the museum and on the tour. But it is totally out of context. It's a fine building and an excellent example of Roman Catholic church architecture and design, but its presence detracts from the Shaker experience. It's like listening to Bach, Telemann, Corelli, and Vivaldi, and then having something by Ralph Von Williams mixed in. It's not that it's not good, it's just badly out of context. The mind doesn't want to shift gears that fast.

There are still Shaker buildings, such as this fine 1854 barn, that are in private hands. I assume the museum will attempt to buy them over time.

But there's still a whole high-density, lake-front residential community cheek-by-jowel with the Shaker buildings.

Moses Johnson, Master Builder

Moses Johnson is known as the builder of Shaker meeting houses, or churches, although he built many other structures, as well. He apparently was a journeyman carpenter when he joined the Shakers at Enfield, New Hampshire, in 1782. He was thirty years old and brought his wife and three children into the Society with him. He was one of the original signers of the covenant at Enfield. He was sent to Mt. Lebanon in 1785 to build a church there and his design for that meeting house set the pattern for all of the early Shaker meeting houses. Sources vary, but he built at least 10 meeting houses at the various New England Shaker communities. All looked the same, inside and out. There were two entrances, the brethren on the left and the sisters on the right. They were unique among Shaker buildings in having gambrel roofs, and there were three dormers on each side. A chimney marked either end of the building.

Meeting houses were the only buildings that could be painted white, and the interiors were to be painted blue. While no particular blue was specified, the practice came to be a Prussian blue that became known as "meeting house blue." The interior had to be open to allow the dances and marches of the Shaker worship service. Johnson accomplished this by giving his buildings boxed beams that transferred the weight of the roof and upper floors to the outside walls by means of boxed knee braces. Wainscoting reached the lower edges of the windows and was faced with benches for the world's people who came to observe. Shakers sat on benches that could be moved to open floor space for the dances. Stairs at either end of the room led to ministry apartments on the second floor. In a few of the meeting houses, a small third floor was finished into rooms for visiting ministry from other communities.

The meeting house at Hancock, in the top photo, was moved there in 1962 from the Shirley community to replace one that had been torn down in 1938. It dates from 1793. The 1792 Canterbury meeting house, above, is distinguished mainly by the color of the doors and its surroundings. They were the same size and layout, but the Canterbury meeting house interior has been modified. The stairs were removed to provide more seating for the world's people and an ell was built in the rear to house stairs to the ministry apartments. The interior also was repainted a light blue around 1875, although the upper floor retains the original meeting house blue. Like Hancock, it too is now part of a museum.

The 1794 Sabbath Day Lake meeting house is still in use as worship space by the last remaining Shakers, and still welcomes the world's people. Like Canterbury, the interior stairs were removed for additional seating. In this case, the ell containing the new stairs was placed at the end of the building.

These three are the only Moses Johnson meeting houses that retain more or less their original appearance and function. Two were sold, moved, and modified to become private residences. The first meeting house at Mt. Lebanon was extensively modified, including getting a gable roof, and eventually became the home of the headmaster at Darrow School. All of the rest have been lost. But the Moses Johnson design lives on.

This private home, currently offered for sale, was built to mimic a Moses Johnson meeting house. The main floor is even open, except for a window-enclosed kitchen, and painted meeting house blue. It can be yours for a mere $1.125 million.

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.