Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield Massachusetts

…continuing with day 17 of our August 2018 exploration of part of the northeastern United States.

If you thought that our visits of farm settings were done, you were wrong…but as you’ll see, this farm visit was quite a bit different.

Note: Although this posting is quite long, with about 36 photos, I’ve cut the number of photos down to about 25% of the ones we took…

Our next stop was Hancock Shaker Village just outside Pittsfield Massachusetts.  This view shows part of the extensive gardens that are maintained today as well as a couple of the barns in this historic village.

Hancock Shaker Village was established in 1791.  In total, there were 19 major Shaker villages founded between 1783 and 1836.  They were located in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.  The Hancock Quaker Village was closed by the Shakers in 1960.  It was sold to a local group that now operates the property as a living museum.  It has been listed as a National Historic Landmark District since 1968.

I couldn’t pass up including this much more inclusive photo of the gardens at the Village!

I’ll start with the brick poultry house.  It was built in 1878.  The fact that it’s brick really tells you how important poultry was to the Shakers.  Most of the chickens and eggs went for the Shakers’ use but they did sell some locally.   

About the Shakers… A woman named Ann Lee, aka Mother Ann Lee was the leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly called the Shakers.  In 1774, Lee and a small group of followers immigrated to New York from England.  The group worshiped by ecstatic dancing, (shaking), hence their name as a group.

It’s significant to note that at point in history it was very unusual for a woman to have the role of religious leader.  Mother Lee was reportedly repulsed by sexual activity.  Still, her father forced her to marry.  All 4 of her children died during infancy.  She developed religious convictions that led her and her followers to advocate celibacy and to abandon marriage.  In addition her stated religious goal was to pursue perfection in all parts of life.   Lee taught that the shaking and trembling were caused by sin being driven from the body through the power of the Holy Spirit…thereby cleansing the worshiper. 

To learn more about Mother Ann Lee, you can just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Lee. 

Since 2010, the first floor of this upscale former chicken house has presented exhibits of contemporary art.  Proceeds from sales help to support the Shakers Village’s programming. 

This particular work of art, “Standing Lichen Liken 2” was completed by Henry Klimowicz in 2017.  Amazingly, it is completely constructed from cardboard and glue!   The artist is drawn to the processes that shape the natural world…and creates organic forms that winds, waters or animals create accidentally. 

This work of art is much older and quite historic.  “The Tree of Light” or “Blazing Tree” was created using watercolors and ink by Shaker Hannah Cohoon in 1845.  This is the most famous of all the “spirit” drawings.

An exhibit of 25 rare Shaker “gift” or “spirit” drawings was underway during our visit.  These drawings are decorative and ornate…contrary to what one might expect from Shaker design.  These drawings weren’t meant to be shared with the outside world and they were never meant to be displayed.  The Hancock collection of these “gift” drawings represents more than 10% of all of these type drawings that are known to exist.  It’s believed that hundreds of these works of art and expression were destroyed by the Shakers when their creators died.     

This may be the most eye-catching building in the Shaker Village.  The “Round Stone Barn” was built in 1826.  The shape was chosen because it was the most functional design.  Note the thickness of the outer walls.  FYI, as a ‘bank barn’, partially built into the earth, this structure’s design offers ground-level access on all 3 levels. 

The barn consists of 4 interior rings.  In the center is the smallest and it exists for the purpose of ventilation.  Good ventilation helps draw moisture out of the hay, preventing mold and spontaneous combustion.

 

The second ring is reserved for hay storage.  The hay was delivered via a balcony that was accessible by wagon via a raised ramp outside the barn.  Since it was a circle, the wagons could be unloaded and then driven out without backing up.  The Shaker ‘brothers’ would then walk across the third ring distribute the hay to the cows standing in the outermost fourth ring. 

The fourth ring could hold up to 70 cows.  They were put into the wooden stanchions.  They would eat while the brothers milked them.  The floor of this outermost ring is a split level…so the milk buckets were 3 inches above the level of the manure.  For additional efficiency, about every 4 feet around the outermost (manure) ring, there was a trapdoor.  The manure could easily be scooped through the trapdoors into a pit beneath the barn.  Other brothers would then remove it so it could be used in the gardens as fertilizer.

Notes:

·       The Round Stone Barn is the only circular barn ever built by the Shakers.

·       Famous authors Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlett Letter and The House of the Seven Gables) and Herman Melville (Moby Dick and Billy Budd) once staged a footrace in the barn…

The Discovery Barn (1910) is part of a ‘barn complex’ that is made up of 3 buildings.  It’s a hands-on fun and teaching facility where children can built a Shaker chair, spin wool or weave on a kid-size loom.  We enjoyed a couple cute little girls ‘milking’ the realistic pretend cow.  The Discovery Room interpreters or docents will also help you select and try on some Shaker-style clothing…and take your picture too!

Note: In my effort to reduce the size of this posting, I left out the photo of the little girls milking the ‘cow’ as well as of all of the photos of chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and even a cat that we saw during our self-guided tour.

We asked these Hancock Shaker Village ‘residents’ (interpreters) if we could take their picture before they headed off to do chores…

Laurie and I were very happy to see that Hancock Shaker Village is maintaining a large grouping of bee hives.  These days, with mass die-offs in the news, bees need all the help we can give them.

Of course the bees serve another practical purpose here on the farm.  Something is needed to pollinate the crops!  Shakers had extensive herb gardens for both culinary and medicinal purposes.  Sage flavored sausages and served as a medicine for “night sweats, colds and coughs.”  Over 100 herbs were included in the herb garden! 

Heirloom vegetables are planted here every year.  The techniques used come from the 1843 Shaker “Gardener’s Manual”.  Varieties are based on Shaker seed lists from the 1800s…many which are very rare today.  Have you ever heard of Mangel Wurtzel Beets, Early White Turnip Radish or Large White Marrowfat Peas?  Neither have I!

This big house (The Trustees’ Office) is where “The World” met the Shakers.  Back in the day, visitors on business placed orders for goods and the village’s guests dined and were lodged here.   

Originally this was constructed in 1813 as a simple gable-roofed building.  In 1852 it was doubled in size.  The building was once again enlarged and the Victorian design touches were added in 1895.  These latter changes included the porches and the 3-story tower. 

Business orientated Shaker brothers and sisters served the community by taking on the role of Trustee.  They lived in this building and handled all the business transactions, hired outside help when needed and managed both the property and the village’s investments. 

The parlor was used for entertaining visitors and it provided a place for the Shakers to play the organ or watch television…

This was the “Fancy Goods Store” in the Trustees’ Office and home.  Sightseers bought Shaker products and souvenirs when visiting the Village.  The Trustees’ Office and Store at Hancock were used until 1959.

The term “Fancy Work” came into being following the American Civil War.  There was a decline in the success of the brothers’ industries and that was coupled with a dramatic decline in the brethren’s membership.  The sisters countered these financial challenges by commercializing some of their skills.  They focused on textiles and baskets, producing a new product line they referred to as “fancy work” or “fancy goods”.  For the most part, this involved the manufacture of decorative boxes, mostly sewing boxes, which were also called “poplarware”.

Yes, Hancock Shaker Village did have an automobile.  This was their 1923 REO T-6 5-passenger 4-door sedan.  From the Hancock Shaker Village website I learned that this car is currently being ‘refreshed’, both with sage green paint as well as mechanically.   

Note: The REO Motor Car Company was based in Lansing Michigan.  It produced automobiles from 1905 to 1937, and then trucks until 1967.  The company was founded by Ransom E. Olds who had earlier founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company…makers of Oldsmobile.  Olds selected the name for his new Company by using his initials…REO. 

This large restored blacksmith shop is in a building referred to as the Tannery Building.  Today, in addition to the blacksmith shop, this building (no photo) also contains a variety of active workshops. 

As a tannery, in 1860 the brothers produced over 600 sides of leather, 200 calfskins, 400 smaller hides and 510 sheepskins.  But by ca. 1875, the Shakers weren’t able to compete with larger tanneries and they got out of the business.  The tanning pits were filled in and the building was converted to a cider press with a forge installed at one end.

I’m not sure which building or barn these drying racks were in…but this process fits perfectly with the way things were done in earlier days.

 

I have omitted several Shaker buildings from this posting in the interest of brevity.  They include the Schoolhouse, the Ministry Wash House, Wood Poultry House, 2 of the barns in the barn complex, the Hired Men’s Shop, Horse Barn and Ice House.  I also skipped any photos of the Visitor Center and the restaurant.

Wait a minute!  Did I say Schoolhouse?  I did and indeed there were some children in Shaker communities.  Sometimes they came with parents who’d converted.  Sometimes a woman would join the society who was already pregnant.  Otherwise children were added to the communities through indenture, adoption or conversion.  The Shakers welcomed all, frequently taking in orphans, a foundling or the homeless.  

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This is the Ministry Shop.  The spiritual life of every Shaker community was overseen by 2 Elders and 2 Eldresses who together comprised the Ministry.  Hancock’s Ministry had spiritual oversite of 2 other Shaker communities, one in Massachusetts and the other in Connecticut.  The Ministry regularly traveled among communities in their bishopric.

The Ministry Shop served as a workplace for the Elders and Eldresses.  Despite their status, they were required to perform hand-labor as were the brothers and sisters under their care.  The Hancock Ministry was formally abolished in 1893.  A New York based Ministry took Hancock under its care.  By 1921, the Ministry’s Shop became a home for Shaker sisters who had been relocated from the Enfield Connecticut community when it closed.

This is the Shakers’ Meetinghouse.  The original Hancock Meetinghouse was built in 1786 but was torn down in 1938.  This Meetinghouse was built by the Shirley Massachusetts Shaker community in 1793 and it was moved to Hancock in 1962.  Shaker religious laws required that Meetinghouses had to be painted white outside and a ‘bluish shade within’. 

The Ministry’s living quarters were located on the second floor of the Meetinghouse.  A large open space on the first floor was used for worship services.  Note that the building has 2 doors on the front of the structure, one for brothers and the other for sisters ‘coming to meeting’.

More than 300 members of Hancock’s 6 communal families would meet here in good weather at the time that Shakerism was most popular.  Men and women sat separately, facing each other.  Worship consisted of singing and dancing… In the morning, worship was private but they welcomed visitors to afternoon meetings in hopes of attracting new converts.  Famous people, including Charles Dickens and James Fenimore Cooper observed and wrote about Shaker worship. 

This huge red barn is probably the third most impressive structure at Hancock Shaker Village.  The Round Stone Barn is the first… The building housed the Laundry and the Machine Shop, thereby accommodating both sisters and brethrens’ work.  Equipment in both the machine shop and washroom was powered by an overshot waterwheel and later by a turbine.  Both were fed by the Village’s extensive water system.

Because of the Shaker belief in the separation of sexes, it was rare for brethren/brothers and sisters to work under the same roof.  Work is the key word… As per Mother Ann Lee, work and worship, the practical and the spiritual, were inseparable.  She is attributed in stating “Hands to Work and Hearts to God”.

This building may have originally been a dwelling dating back to the 1790s.  Later in its history it was adapted and positioned over the incoming water supply, which originated from the Village reservoir. 

The Laundry wash room floor is covered with marble slabs which slope up at the edges of the walls.  This was the ironing room where several sisters would work together.  We loved the nifty ‘iron heater’ in the middle of the room.  As you can see, several old time irons could be heated at a time, allowing for the continuous availability of a hot iron for the sisters. 

There are 2 buildings that sit almost side by side and look almost exactly alike in Hancock Village.  This is the brethrens’/brothers’ workshop.  It was built ca. 1813.  Hancock brothers made brooms, hats, wool cards, shoes, wooden measures, tin ware and they packaged garden seeds and medicines for home use as well as for sale. 

Visitors to the brethren’s Shop today will find examples of several Shaker industries.  These include oval box making, a chair shop and a broom shop.  In season Interpreters demonstrate these traditional crafts.

 

This photo of the Oval Box workshop shows some of the products being made.  These days, antique Shaker poplarware is moderately priced with the prices I’ve noted ranging from $175 up to $1,200.  One dealer’s website is found at https://www.rubylane.com/antiques?cat=Antiques&q=shaker.

New Shaker style ‘fancy boxes’ are sold on line as well.  View the selection at http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catalog/browse/shaker-oval-boxes/.

Shakers separated their personal aspirations from the world but they didn’t attempt to remove themselves from it.  They bought and sold ‘outside’ without hesitation.  The key was not to compromise their beliefs and ethics.  In 1795, the ministry advised that “all things made for sale ought to be well done and suitable for their use. 

Baskets were an important item to Shaker communities, both for use within the Villages and for sale to the ‘outside’.  In the Shaker community at Mt. Lebanon New York, it was a major industry.  Before the close of the 1800s, that community had made over 71,000 baskets for sale…

A plethora of ‘antique’ Shaker baskets are available on eBay.  You can check it out at https://www.ebay.com/bhp/shaker-basket.

The brethren built a lot of chairs!  They are everywhere in Hancock Shaker Village and, like their other products, they were sold to the ‘outside’.  Of course, antique Shaker chairs are highly valued by collectors and the plain clean lines of their design have been copied by many furniture makers. 

Looking for a nice set of Shaker chairs?  To shop you can just go to http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catalog/browse/shaker-dining-chairs/.  

The Sisters’ Dairy and Weave Shop, also with the mustard yellow paint, is just across from the Brothers’ Workshop.  The sisters’ building dates back to sometime in the 1790s.  It was located near the dairy barn so the milk could be easily transported to it for the sisters to process it.  They produced the butter and cheese…and they milked the community’s herd as well.  Dairy products were a key commodity of the Hancock Shakers from the early days and into the 1900s. 

Sometime after 1820 a second floor was added to the Dairy.  It was used as a weave loft.  The sisters wove cloth for clothes, wove rugs and they also made bonnets.  When big mills were built, the Shakers purchased most of their cloth from them.  By the 1920s, most community members stopped wearing traditional Shaker clothing.  They either sewed their own or they just purchased plain clothing from commercial stores. 

To us this very large red-brick building rivals the Round Stone Barn as an attention getter!  This building was built in 1830 and it served as dormitory housing more than 100 brothers and sisters.  This building definitely shows that the Shaker community was prosperous.  The structure, with its space, ventilation and indoor water, was a great advertisement for the creature comforts the society provided its members…that is as long as you wanted to be celibate!

This large dwelling was set up so the sexes could live apart under one roof.  Wide hallways separate the brethren’s rooms from the sisters’ rooms.  Separate stairwells and exterior doors meant that the opposite sexes never had to pass each other.   

What follows is a series of photos of some of the rooms in this big brick dwelling.  They are far from complete, but they do give a sense of the complexity and functional nature of the building.  Here we have vats and a large oven.

This is one photo of the expansive kitchen.  Food was for the community was prepared here and dumb-waiters were built into the structure for the easy movement of food and dishes between the kitchen that was downstairs, and the dining room upstairs.

Of course, in the dining room the brethren ate at one end of the room and the sisters at the other.  As of 1845, as per the “Millenial Laws”, which were intended to bring the different Shaker communities into uniform practices, Members of the Ministry were prohibited from eating, living or working with the rest of the community.

Apparently there were occasional scandals related to the Shakers.  I found one involving a husband who joined the Shakers vs. his wife who rejected the lifestyle…and the fight over their children.  Check it out at https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/books/review/Norton-t.html.

This room appears to be where the sisters prepared and canned the community’s produce…

This is one of the bedrooms from the brethrens’s side of this huge dwelling.  While comfortable, it doesn’t offer any privacy and obviously personal possessions would have to be limited…

Laurie took this photo of the plain and simple clothing worn by the Shakers.  This display was in one of the rooms in the dwelling…

With so many people living in the Hancock Shaker community, having enough food on hand to feed them was critical.  These storage areas helped the Shakers ensure that food would be plentiful, even in the middle of a New England winter!

I had to include a photo of a large piece of shaker furniture.  This impressive piece caught Laurie’s attention. 

Shaker furniture was made with functional form and proportion.  Inlays, carvings, metal pulls and veneers, which were viewed as prideful or deceitful, were never used.  Instead the Shakers created asymmetrical drawer arrangements and multipurpose forms to add visual interest.  Furniture was made of cherry, maple or pine.  It was generally stained or painted with one of the colors that were dictated by the sect…usually blue, red, yellow or green.  Drawer pulls were made of wood.  The popularity of Shaker style furniture continues today…

We thought that the end of this lengthy post should end ‘on the floor’.  Laurie and I loved these stone floors even more than the beautiful marble or wood floors throughout the Village’s buildings.

 

Today only one Shaker Village is still inhabited by Shakers.  That is the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine.  As of 2017, only 2 members remained, a brethren and a sister.  At one point there had been about 6,000 Shakers in the USA.  The 2 remaining Shakers receive about 2 requests per month from those asking about joining the sect. 

About 60,000 people a year visit the Hancock Shaker Village Museum.  With its 20 historic buildings, more than 22,000 artifacts, extensive gardens, a working farm, hiking trails, craft demonstrations and special celebrations, there is a lot to do and experience. 

Hancock Shaker Village Museum is open from mid-April through October.  Adult admission is $20.00 with discounts for seniors and others.  Youth (ages 13 – 17) are $8.00.  Under 12 years old, children with family are free.  The Village is located at 1843 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield Massachusetts.  Phone: 413-443-0188.  For more information go to the Village’s website at https://hancockshakervillage.org/.

Believe it or not, that’s all for now!  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a longer than normal visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave