Alfred Shaker Historic District is a historic district in

Alfred, Maine Alfred is a town in York County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,073. Alfred is the seat of York County and home to part of the Massabesic Experimental Forest. National Register of Historic Places has two ...

, with properties on both sides of Shaker Hill Road. The area had its first Shaker "believers" in 1783 following visiting with Mother

Ann Lee Ann Lee (29 February 1736 – 8 September 1784), commonly known as Mother Ann Lee, was the founding leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, or the Shakers. After nearly two decades of participation in a r ...

and became an official community starting in 1793 when a meetinghouse was built. It was home to Maine's oldest and largest Shaker community. Two notable events were the songwriting of Joseph Brackett, including, according to most accounts, '' Simple Gifts'', and the spiritual healing of the sick by the Shakers. When the Alfred Shakers products and goods were no longer competitive with mass-produced products and the membership had dwindled significantly, the village was closed in 1931 and members moved to

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is a Shaker village near New Gloucester and Poland, Maine, in the United States. It is the last active Shaker community, with two members . With a new member, it had expanded to three members by 2021. The community ...

, also in Maine. In memory of the influence that the Shaker village had on the community, the Shaker Village Museum was founded by the Friends of the Alfred Shaker Museum and in 2001 the village, or historic district, was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 1931 the farmland, village and buildings were acquired by the

Brothers of Christian Instruction The Brothers of Christian Instruction ( la, Institutum Fratrum Instructionis Christianae de Ploërmel, F.I.C.P.''Ann. Pont. 2007'', p. 1499.), commonly known as the La Mennais Brothers, is a Catholic educational organization founded in 1819 by G ...

, now called the Notre Dame Spiritual Center.

Shaker village

History

John Cotton, having been inspired by Mother

on May 26, 1783, became Maine's first Shaker member.''Alfred Shaker Historic District''.
National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. National Park Service. Retrieved March 27, 2014. That year members of the Shaker Church settled on the hill near Massabesic (now Shaker) Pond. Others dubbed them the "Merry Dancers," because of their ecstatic worship. "They were," as historian George J. Varney writes, "at this time fanatical in religion and intemperate in their indulgences." The Shaker village was formally organized in 1793 when a meetinghouse was built. The community practiced the religion's celibate communal living, with equality among the sexes and races. They built plain

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and furniture, honest expressions of their faith. At the movement's height in the 1840s, Shakers operated 19

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

n communities scattered from Maine to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, and as far west as

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Each of those communities was administratively organized within an area bishopric, and Alfred was the home of the Maine bishopric elders and eldresses, who traveled regularly between Alfred, Poland Hill, and New Gloucester to oversee those villages' elders and eldresses. In 1848, the Alfred, Maine bishopric ministry included Elder Joseph Brackett and Eldress Rebecca Hodgdon, and their assistants Otis Sawyer and Deborah Fuller. Elder Joseph Brackett is attributed by many Shaker accounts to have written the famous 1848 Shaker dancing song, '' Simple Gifts''.Alfred Shaker Historic District.
Shaker Historic Trail. National Park Service. Retrieved March 27, 2014. In 1880, the Maine ministry consisted of Elder Otis Sawyer and Eldress Hester Ann Adams, assisted by Mary Gillespie and John Vance. Hundreds of people lived at the 300-acre Shaker village on both sides of Shaker Hill Road, which included a school, gardens, orchards, a grist and saw mill, farm land, barns, a dairy and shops. They made brooms, brushes, woven cloth, woodenware, spinning wheels, horsehair sieves, oval carriers and fancy goods. They reaped seeds and herbs and made herbal medicines. Key intentions among the Shakers were to live a simple life in harmony, respect nature, and produce well-made or cared for agricultural or material products. The village made a number of goods and products and was noted for "spiritualistic healing of the sick," but the daily operations were difficult to manage and the village was not economically successful due to the competition of manufactured goods. By the end of the nineteenth century, the community consisted mainly of devoted women and the membership dwindled as members died. In 1920, a revival was led by Harriet Coolbroth and Mary Ann Walker to bolster the number of members, which resulted in a fervent community for several years.Stephen J. Paterwic, ''Historical Dictionary of the Shakers'' (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2008) In March 1931 the number of Shakers at Alfred had dwindled and the remaining individuals moved to the

.''Home''.
Alfred Shaker Museum. Retrieved March 27, 2014. The Alfred Shaker Historic District is preserved and listed on the

since 2001. Only Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in

New Gloucester New Gloucester is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, in the United States. It is home to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the last active Shaker village in the U.S. The town's population was 5,676 at the 2020 census. New Gloucester is part ...

survives under the control of the last few Shakers. Some former communities operate today as museums because, like Alfred Shaker Village, they closed when the congregation dwindled. Artist Joshua Bussell was long a resident of the Alfred community. File:Alfred historic buildings, c. 1880.jpg, Historic buildings, Alfred Shaker Village, Maine, File:Alfred Shaker Village, c 1880.jpg, Historic building, Alfred Shaker Village, Maine,

Alfred Shaker Museum

The Alfred Shaker Museum, located in a gatehouse of the previous Shaker village, was founded by local residents who had organized the Friends of Alfred Shaker Museum to preserve the Shaker heritage within the community. Within the renovated Carriage House is a library, shop and the museum that conducts periodic craft workshops, events and exhibits.

Brothers of Christian Instruction

In 1931, the Alfred property was sold to the

, and is called the Notre Dame Spiritual Center. They have managed the farm and occupied the village buildings. Although the Shakers are gone, some of their

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of ...

s and blueberry fields are still yielding fruit, the sale of which helps support the York County Shelter.York County Shelter
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References

External links

Alfred Shaker Museum (official website)

{{National Register of Historic Places Alfred, Maine Historic districts in York County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine Shaker communities or museums Museums in York County, Maine Federal architecture in Maine Religious museums in Maine Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine