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.

Sunday morning

Silent Saturday

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.

Meet some Mt. Lebanon Shakers

This poster from Mt. Lebanon has some of the most important members who lived there, but lacks two who were perhaps the most important of all. Joseph Meacham moved to Mt. Lebanon soon after assuming leadership of the Society. Meacham was a former Baptist minister whose ideas transformed the Shakers. Naming Sister Lucy Wright as eldress and female head of the Society, he set the Shakers on a course that would lead to full equality between the sexes. There are no images of either since they both died before photography was invented in 1826. Together they called the converts together into communities, established the governing structure for those communities, established communal ownership of all property, dissolved marriages of converts and placed children together under the supervision of unrelated adults. These changes were referred to as being in "church order."

Lucy Wright initially had resisted joining the Shakers. Her husband, Elizur Goodrich first joined the Shakers after attending a revival in 1780. Lucy clung to her marriage vows for several months before giving in. When Joseph Meacham left Watervliet for New Lebanon, he called Lucy to join him, naming her an eldress and co-leader of the Society. He also gave her the title of Mother, which previously had been bestowed only on Ann Lee. Meacham and Wright served as the leaders and administrators of all Shaker families in every Shaker community, naming an elder and eldress to administer each community, with subordinate elders and eldresses over each family within a community. Thus the duality of joint male/female leadership was implemented at every level with the Society.

Lucy Wright continued to be the female leader of the Society following Meacham's death in 1796. It was she who sent the three missionaries (Issachar Bates, John Meacham, and Benjamin Seth Youngs) from New Lebanon to the western frontier following the Cane Ridge Revival. She began a publishing enterprise that facilitated standardization of Shaker faith and practice across the communities. Wright returned to Watervliet, where she died in 1821. She is buried next to Ann Lee.

Robert Wagan didn't create the Shaker chair, but he introduced mass-production techniques that standardized parts and increased production. The chair industry at Mt. Lebanon became a major source of income for the community with chairs being shipped all over the world. The number of models and styles was staggering; rockers in seven sizes with multiple styles and materials, ladder-back straight chairs, woven-back straight chairs, chairs with and without arms. For a while, chairs carried the label "Robert Wagan & Co., Mt. Lebanon, New York." Straight chairs that sold new for $ 0.50 each now sell for thousands of dollars.

Anna White was eldress in the Mt. Lebanon North Family. It is usually her photograph that will appear if you seek an on-line image of Ann Lee.

Frederick W. Evans became well known through granting interviews, correspondence, and his autobiography. He corresponded with a wide range of important figures, including President Lincoln, whom he contacted to try to obtain pensions for Shakers who had served in wars before joining the Society. His Autobiography of a Shaker and Revelation of the Apocalypse was a major contribution to Shaker apologetics.