The Enfield Shakers Historic District encompasses some of the surviving remnants of a former
Shaker community in
Enfield, Connecticut
Enfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Long ...
. Founded in the 1780s, the Enfield Shaker community remained active until 1917. The surviving buildings of their once large community complexes are located in and around Taylor Road in northeastern Enfield, and were listed as a
historic district on 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 1979. The listing included 15
contributing buildings and one
contributing site
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
.
[
]
History
The Enfield Shaker community was the only Shaker settlement in Connecticut (others were in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky) and was significant for its garden-seed business. The Enfield settlement, was founded in the 1780s, and lasted until 1917. There were three distinct centers of development, called "families" by the Shakers. Some of their land was taken for construction of the Enfield Correctional Institute, a state prison.[
The district included all 15 buildings that survive, out of about six times as many existing in 1917. In 1978, the surviving buildings include a meetinghouse, a large brick residence, an ice house, five barns, a sawmill, a slaughterhouse, a laundry, and several workshops, in three village-like clusters. Most of these buildings date to the period 1830–60, when the community was at its height. These buildings, as well as a portion of Shaker-developed landscape are located mainly on the west side of Taylor Road between Moody Road in the south and Sandhill Road to the north. A few buildings are on Cybulski Road north of Moody, nearly surrounded by modern development.][ and ]
File:Enfield CT Shakers.jpg, Enfield community,
See also
*Shaker Seed Company
The Shaker Seed Company was an American seed company that was owned and operated by the Shakers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, many Shaker communities produced several vegetable seed varie ...
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut
Buildings and structures completed in 1827
Historic districts in Hartford County, Connecticut
Shaker communities or museums
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
1827 establishments in Connecticut
Enfield, Connecticut