The Enfield Shaker Museum is an outdoor history museum and historic district in

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

in the United States. It is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the

Shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...

, a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

religious denomination, who lived on the site from 1793 to 1923. The museum features exhibitions, artifacts, eight Shaker buildings and restored Shaker gardens. It is located in a valley between

Mount Assurance Mount Assurance is a mountain in New Hampshire, United States. It is close to Enfield and Mascoma Lake. It is possible to hike up the mountain. The Shaker community in Enfield treated the peak as being sacred.Brad Olsen, Sacred Places North Ameri ...

and

Mascoma Lake Mascoma Lake is a lake in western New Hampshire, United States. Most of the lake is within the town of Enfield, while a small portion is within the city of Lebanon, where it drains into the Mascoma River, a tributary of the Connecticut River. T ...

in Enfield. One of the buildings, the Great Stone Dwelling, was the largest residential building north of Boston and is the largest Shaker building. When the Shaker community closed, most of the land that made up the Enfield Shaker Village was sold to the

Missionaries of La Salette The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette (M.S. - Missionarium Saletiniensis) are a religious congregation of priests and brothers in the Latin Church. They are named after the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette in France. There is also a par ...

. The state owns and 13 buildings, which is now the Enfield Shaker Museum.

Shakers

Village history

The

, or United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, settled on the site in 1793 along

Lake Mascoma Mascoma Lake is a lake in western New Hampshire, United States. Most of the lake is within the town of Enfield, New Hampshire, Enfield, while a small portion is within the city of Lebanon, New Hampshire, Lebanon, where it drains into the Mascoma ...

on up to .Enfield Shaker Historic District.
National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. National Park Service. Retrieved March 27, 2014. A meetinghouse was built May 1793 and a residential building was constructed in 1794. Subsequent buildings were made of granite with advanced stone masonry techniques, which was revolutionary for that time period. There were 132 members of the village by 1803, and by 1840 there were nearly 300 people. Within the village was the largest Shaker dwelling and the largest residential dwelling north of Boston, the Great Stone Building. Built from 1837 to 1841 for the Church Family, it had four full stories and a total of six stories. Men and women lived in the building, but entered doors specific for their gender to separate quarters.Patricia Schultz.
1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die
'. Workman Publishing; 2011. . p. 70. It was designed by

Ammi Burnham Young Ammi Burnham Young (June 19, 1798 – March 14, 1874) was a 19th-century American architect whose commissions transitioned from the Greek Revival to the Neo-Renaissance styles. His design of the second Vermont State House brought him fame and su ...

,Jean M. Burks. ''Shaker design: out of this world''. Yale University Press; 2008. p. 19. who created the designs for the second

state capitol This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise its ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

and was the first supervising architect for the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

. The

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

stonework on the exterior and the

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof were constructed by stonemasons from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. The Shaker brothers constructed the rest of the building themselves. In 1849, the Shakers built the half-mile long Shaker Bridge that crossed a narrow portion of Lake Mascoma to the railroad line. In 1870, the elaborate Victorian and Shaker architectural Ministry shop was built to house the community's religious leaders. To support itself, the community made brooms, buckets, spinning wheels, tubs, dry measures and shirts. It also made and sold applesauce, maple syrup, herbs, medicines and seeds. Like other Shaker communities, the Enfield Shaker village declined throughout the second half of the 19th century. In 1923, they closed the Enfield Shaker village and moved to the Canterbury community in central New Hampshire. Much of the village property was sold in 1927 to the La Salettes. The site is listed on the U.S.

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 v ...

as the Enfield Shaker Historic District. File:EnfieldShakerVillage BrethrenStoneShop.jpg, Brethren Stone Shop File:EnfieldShakerVillage LaundryDairy.jpg, Laundry and Dairy buildings File:Shaker Bridge 1889.jpg, Shaker Bridge, 1889

Museum

Since 1986, the Enfield Shaker Museum has worked to preserve the Shaker heritage of the site without neglecting the 20th century history of the village. The Great Stone Dwelling houses the gift shop and the primary exhibition space. The museum is open 7 days a week, offering tours of the site,Home.
The Enfield Shaker Museum. Retrieved March 28, 2014. and offers overnight stays in the original Shaker bedrooms of the Great Stone Dwelling. There are 13 remaining Shaker village buildings and gardens on 28 acres, which can be seen during a self-guided walking tour. The village museum is owned by the state of

.Paul Karr.
Frommer's Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine
'. John Wiley & Sons; 1 July 2010. . p. 204. File:Shaker Historic District 2.JPG, Great Stone Dwelling is where the museum, exhibition space, rooms for overnight stays, and the gift shop is located.

Missionaries of La Salette

In 1927, the site was sold to the

, who converted the site into a seminary for the Catholic priesthood, school and conference site. The La Salettes built in 1930 the Mary Keane Chapel, a neo-classical revival chapel, which is now part of the museum and open to visitors. The Missionaries of La Salette closed the seminary in 1974, and the center is now known as the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, which is a center of "reconciliation". ''The Miracle of Enfield: A Vale Chosen by God Himself.''
La Salette of Enfield. Retrieved March 28, 2014. File:Shaker Historic District 7.JPG, Mary Keane Chapel

References

External links