Preservation of Shaker Villages Is Progressing

New Hampshire’s two Shaker villages have both recently made progress in preserving their history.

In Enfield, the Museum at Lower Shaker Village raised money to buy the building it occupies.

In Canterbury, Shaker Village and the state agreed tentatively on a plan to block most development at this National Historic Site for 200 years.

Carolyn Smith, director of the museum in Enfield, said it had raised $161,000 to buy the laundry-dairy building in which the museum has been located since 1989.

The building, erected between 1813 and 1830, is a relic of the religious community settled along Mascoma Lake in the late 1700s by the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing--or Shakers, as they came to be known for their vigorous dances.

Shakers lived as celibates in numerous communities in the eastern United States, and left a legacy of elegantly simple architecture and furniture. They also produced inventions ranging from the flat broom to the circular saw.

Only one Shaker, Sister Ethel Hudson, 95, remains in New Hampshire--she lives in the Canterbury village. A handful of adherents still live at the Shaker community in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

Smith said owning the building at Enfield “gives us the chance to do some major restorations, although structurally it’s very sound and most of the architectural detail is still in place.”

The museum bought its building from First Leader Corp., which owns most of the other buildings that make up the core of the Shaker settlement. First Leader operates an inn and restaurant in the Great Stone Dwelling.

Smith said several other Shaker buildings owned by First Leader or its individual principals remain in limbo regarding preservation.

The 1854 cow barn, 1819 Bethany House and 1880 Ministry House were offered for sale last summer, prompting fears they might be sold to developers and altered, or even razed. First Leader later withdrew the properties from the market.

“I feel a little more comfortable now than when they were first put on the market,” Smith said. “We aren’t necessarily interested in owning every Shaker building in Lower Shaker Village, but we are interested in protecting the buildings.”

The museum, founded in 1986, runs programs and activities about the Shakers and their way of life.

Most of the original contents of the buildings where the Shakers lived were dispersed when the Shakers left in 1923. Now the museum is building up a collection of artifacts.

“We have some furniture, and also some items that are related to what the Shakers did here, for example, farm equipment such as cheese presses,” said Smith.

“One very special item is a late 1800s seed box complete with 90 packages of seeds still in their original packages. That’s very rare--it was a totally unexpected gift from a small museum in Vermont. It was really pretty exciting to get that.

“We also have pieces of clothing and personal items of the Shakers who lived here that are now beginning to come back to us. Another Shaker activity was making beautiful pine buckets, and we have some of that equipment.”

In Canterbury, an appraisal for all but about 40 of the village’s 690 acres remains before the preservation agreement is signed.

The village applied for financial help from the state Land Conservation Investment Program in July 1990. The agreement would allow new structures on parcels totaling nearly 40 acres, but the new buildings could not be visible from the center of the village.

The village would use the money to establish an endowment to preserve and restore historic buildings on the site.