Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is a
Shaker village near
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 ...
and
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is the last active Shaker community, with two members .
With a new member, it had expanded to three members by 2021. The community was established in either 1782, 1783, or 1793, at the height of the Shaker movement in the United States. The Sabbathday Lake meetinghouse was built in 1794. The entire property was declared a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1974.
[ and ]
The Shakers
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 ...
were originally located in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1747, in the home of 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 re ...
. They developed from the religious group called the
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
which originated in the 17th century. Both groups believed that everybody could find God within him or herself, rather than through clergy or rituals, but the Shakers tended to be more emotional and demonstrative in their worship. Shakers also believed that their lives should be dedicated to pursuing perfection and continuously confessing their sins and attempting a cessation of sinning.
The Shakers migrated to
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
in 1774 in pursuit of
religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
. They built 19
communal settlements that attracted some 20,000 converts over the next century. The first Shaker village was built in
New Lebanon, New York
New Lebanon is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States, southeast of Albany. In 1910, 1,378 people lived in New Lebanon. The population was 2,305 at the 2010 census.
The town of New Lebanon is in the northeastern corner of Columbia ...
, at the
Mount Lebanon Shaker Society
Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, also known as New Lebanon Shaker Society, was a communal settlement of Shakers in New Lebanon, New York. The earliest converts began to "gather in" at that location in 1782 and built their first meetinghouse in 1785. ...
. The other 18 communities were built in Maine,
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 ...
,
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, New York,
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 to ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
,
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 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
Strict believers in
celibacy
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...
, Shakers maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption of orphans. The group reached its maximum size of about 6,000 full members in 1840.
History of Sabbathday Lake Shakers
The Shaker settlement at Sabbathday Lake was established by a group of Shaker
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
in 1782, and was then known as Thompson's Pond Plantation. The first members were from Gorham, Maine. The community grew to over two hundred members in less than a year.
Its location in
Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to:
Australia
* Cumberland County, New South Wales
* the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia
Canada
*Cumberland County, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
*Cumberland, historic county
*Cumberlan ...
, Maine, made it the most northern and eastern of all the Shaker communes. They raised their meetinghouse in April 1794 and built their first dwelling across the road in 1795.
The Sabbathday Lake community grew to a size of with 26 large buildings by 1850. Buildings on the grounds included the meetinghouse, the Brethren's Shop which still holds a working
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
shop and woodworking operation. A large new Central Dwelling House was built in 1883
or 1884.
The Shakers strived to be as self-sufficient as possible, while being an active part of the community. They built a mill and farm that enabled them to sell produce and commercial goods to the outside world.
Membership
By 1800, more than 140 believers lived at Sabbathday Lake community.
By 1850, seventy Shakers lived in the Sabbathday Lake Church Family at New Gloucester.
The 1880 census listed 43 believers at Sabbathday Lake. Membership hovered at about that point until the 1930s, when only about thirty members remained. Two members remain as of January 2020.
Covenant
In 1957, after "months of prayer," Eldresses Gertrude, Emma, and Ida, the leaders of the United Society of Believers and members of Canterbury Shaker Village, voted to close the Shaker Covenant, the document which all new members need to sign to become members of the Shakers.
In 1988, speaking about the three men and women in their 20s and 30s who had joined the Shakers and were living in the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, Eldress Bertha Lindsay said, "To become a Shaker you have to sign a legal document taking the necessary vows and that document, the official covenant, is locked up in our safe. Membership is closed forever."
However, a
covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
is a contract with reciprocal obligations. Once executed between a number of parties, a covenant cannot be dissolved unless all parties agree—and the eldresses did not have the agreement of all remaining covenanted members.
The Sabbathday Lake Shakers reopened their worship services to the public in 1963.
In the twenty-first century
Membership to the community is still open, and occasionally "novices" explore joining the society.
As of 2006, the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village has 14 working buildings, including the Central Dwelling House, which includes a music room,
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
,
kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...
and large
dining room
A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...
.
The community still holds regular Public Meetings (worship services) on Sundays in the 1794 meetinghouse.
Another building with historical significance is the Shaker Library, which houses a rich collection of Shaker records for historical research.
Other historic buildings include the Cart and Carriage Shed, Ox Barn, The Girl's Shop, Herb House, Brooder House, Wood House, a garage built in 1910 for the group's first car,
stable, Summer House and the Laundry building.
The village, which attracts up to 10,000 visitors a year,
has been open to the public since 1931, when the Shaker Museum and Library was established.
![Aurelia Gay Mace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Aurelia_Gay_Mace.JPG)
This Museum is the largest repository of Maine Shaker culture. Examples of furniture, oval boxes, woodenware, metal and tin wares, technology and tools, "fancy" sales goods, costume and textiles, visual arts, and herbal and medicinal products are among the 13,000 artifacts currently part of the Sabbathday Lake collection. Although the collection represents every Shaker Community known to have existed, special emphasis has been placed upon preserving the heritage of the Maine Shaker Communities, including Sabbathday Lake,
Poland Hill,
Gorham, and
Alfred
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
.
Present and future
![Sabbathday ME barns HABS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Sabbathday_Lake_Shaker_Village_barns%2C_Historic_American_Buildings_Survey.jpeg)
As Shakers are
celibate
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...
, new members cannot be born into the group and must join from the outside.
Many prospective members find the celibacy a major drawback and it keeps them from joining. Current members have taken steps to ensure that Sabbathday Lake Village will remain largely unchanged when the final members of the group die.
The of land owned by the Shakers in both
Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to:
Australia
* Cumberland County, New South Wales
* the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia
Canada
*Cumberland County, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
*Cumberland, historic county
*Cumberlan ...
and
Androscoggin County include Sabbathday Lake which is with of undeveloped shoreline with a beach that is open to the public and the Shaker
Bog.
Other dismantled Shaker villages were converted into housing lots or prisons. In order to avoid this fate at Sabbathday Lake the Shakers took some preventive measures in 2001.
Preservation and conservation
easement
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...
s were sold to
Maine Preservation and the
New England Forestry Foundation. The two groups with the help of eight other public and non-profit agencies are working to cover cost of the easements. The village and surrounding farmland and forests will be protected from development. Brother Arnold Hadd was quoted by the ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' in 2006. "We can't put up a
Wal-Mart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
. Or a housing development. The land always has to remain for
agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
and forest purposes."
The selling of future development rights has enabled the Shakers to restore and maintain the structures of the village. They also make money by leasing 29 cottage lots on Sabbathday Lake, leasing of forests, of farmland and
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 larg ...
s and a
gravel pit
A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...
.
Other income sources include production of fancy goods,
basket making
Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
,
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...
, printing, and the manufacturing of some small woodenware.
Their operation is run with the help of six year-round employees and six seasonal employees.
![Aurelia Gay Mace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Aurelia_Gay_Mace......JPG)
On January 2, 2017, the community said that female community member, Sister Frances Carr had died that day. With Carr's death, Sister June Carpenter and Brother Arnold Hadd remained.
The Spring/Summer 2019 issue of ''The Clarion'', the Shakers' newsletter, makes reference to an additional Shaker in the community, Brother Andrew.
Community life
This community was one of the smaller Shaker groups during the sect's heyday. They farm and practice a variety of handicrafts; a Shaker Museum and Sunday services are open to visitors. Mother Ann Lee is celebrated on the first Sunday of August to commemorate the arrival of the English Shakers in America in 1774. The congregation sings and a Mother Ann cake is presented.
The daily schedule of a Shaker in Sabbathday Lake Village is as follows:
*The day begins at 7:30 am; the Great Bell on Dwelling House rings, calling everyone to breakfast.
*At 8:00 am morning prayers start. Two Psalms are read, then passages are read from elsewhere in the Bible. Following this is communal prayer and silent prayer, concluded with the singing of a Shaker hymn.
*
Work
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an animal t ...
for the Shakers begins at 8:30.
*Work stops at 11:30 for midday prayers.
*Lunch begins at 12:00. This is the main meal for the Shakers.
*Work continues at 1:00 pm
*At 6:00 it is dinner time, the last meal of the day.
*On Wednesdays at 5:00 pm they hold a prayer meeting which is followed by a Shaker Studies class.
Shaker Trust
To preserve their legacy as well as their idyllic lakeside property at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the Shakers announced in October 2005 that they had entered into a trust with the state of
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and several conservation groups. Under the agreement, the Shakers will sell conservation easements to the trust, allowing the village to ward off development and continue operating as long as there are Shakers to live there.
The agreement does not specify whether the property will become a park, museum, or other public space should the Shakers die out. That decision would be made by a nonprofit corporation—the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake Inc.—whose board members are largely non-Shakers. The $3.7 million
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
plan relies on grants, donations, and public funds.
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
The Trust for Public Land, archived September 1, 2007 fro
the original
/ref>
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 ...
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Maine
__NOTOC__
This is a complete List of National Historic Landmarks in Maine. The United States National Historic Landmark program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, and similar ...
*
References
Further reading
* Sister Frances A. Carr. ''Growing Up Shaker'' (Sabbathday Lake, Me.: United Society of Shakers, 1995.
*
*
*
''Shaker Manifesto''
The Shakers' monthly magazine, 1871-1899.
*
*
External links
*
The Shaker Village at Sabbathday Lake
Friends of the Shakers
All of the following Historic American Buildings Survey
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
(HABS) documentation is filed under Sabbathday Lake Village, Cumberland County, ME:
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmarks in Maine
Historic American Buildings Survey in Maine
Museums in Cumberland County, Maine
Shaker communities or museums
History museums in Maine
Religious museums in Maine
New Gloucester, Maine
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Androscoggin County, Maine