The Shakers have one remaining home, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, but a historical legacy that can lead to wonderful journeys through beautiful countryside

1. by Terence Baker
A
lfred, Me., is a tidy village with
an antiquarian bookshop and
a blue country store.It’s a place
that warrants dallying in.
The Shakers—also known as the United
Society of Believers in Christ’s Second
Coming and famous for its furniture—
certainly thought so. It had a community
here between 1793 and 1931,when it was
bought by another religious organization,
the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
On a recent tour of Shaker villages,muse-
ums and sites,I came across Alfred,which
has several Shaker buildings still remaining
and a Shaker cemetery.As I walked along
an avenue to reach six Shaker tombstones,
I chatted with a brother.“‘Simple Gifts,’ the
Shakers’ most famous song, was written
right here,”he said.“I’ll sing it to you if you’d
like, although my voice might not be so
good after working all morning.”
He did so, beautifully, turning around
slowly when the song instructed, and
when he finished, we continued walking,
as though his singing spontaneously to
strangers was the world’s most natural idea.
It was a touching moment,one that showed
the gentleness and kindness of these
people who have consciously decided to
live simply. This man moved toAlfred at the
age of 13,59 years ago.
The Shakers still reside in one spot,
Sabbathday Lake, Me. The community—
which numbers four, but still welcomes
new members—lives in a settlement
showing all the classic Shaker traits: tall
buildings with windows flat to their sides;
immaculate gardens and pathways; differ-
ent workshops for sisters and brethren;and
a calm atmosphere of purposeful work.
Brother Arnold Hadd told me that the
Shakers kept to the“Three Cs”: communal
ownership, confession of sin and celibacy.
Looking at Shaker furniture, pruned apple
trees and small, immaculate details, it is
apparent that everything was and is being
done to fulfill the words of its 18th-century
founder,Mother Ann Lee:“Do all your work
as though you had a thousand years to live,
and as you would if you knew you must
die tomorrow.”Hadd,who came here in the
1970s, and the nephew of another Shaker
When We Find Ourselves in the Place Just Right:
Travels with the Shakers
PhotobyTerenceBaker
The Shakers are known for their delicate oval boxes.34 Car & Travel July 2008

2. Car & Travel July 2008 35
were busy preparing for the new tourism
season,which runs to Columbus Day.
The same functional neatness exists at
Canterbury, N.H., which ceased being a
Shaker community only in 1992 and the
view of which from the bottom of the hill
is delightful. It has a garage built in 1927,
testament of the Shakers’ modernity.
Nothing is ostentatious or folly. This is a
group that is ingeniously practical.
Nowhere is that more evident than at
the largest Shaker museum and attraction
in New England, Hancock Shaker Village
in Hancock, Mass. One volunteer—most
Shaker sites, even Sabbathday Lake, enjoy
a committed network of employees,volun-
teers and friends—told me that once the
Shakers had more than 4,000 patents.They
invented the circular saw, the clothespin
and the flat-bottom broom, among other
things; 200-year-old water pumps still work
and ingenious wooden balls attached to
Shaker chairs with a length of hide stop
their legs from breaking.(Shaker furniture
now sells at auction for ridiculous sums
of money, and on the drive home, in West
Cornwall,Conn.,I saw by a covered bridge
a workshop that makes Shaker furniture,
proof of its continued appeal.)
Hancock educates visitors about Shaker
life, most notably on popular weeks such
as its Baby Animals Days in April and
Country Fair in September. Its president,
Ellen Spear,told me that,“It’s a revelation to
children,some of whom do not know where
their food comes from,to see that commu-
nities worked together to produce all they
needed.”A major exhibit of Shaker products
and furniture (the Andrews Collection) be-
gins this year.Visitors also learn that Shakers
were not so different from them.One myth
is that Shakers shook during religious cere-
monies—well,maybetheymovedalittle,but
certainly not as much as early deprecators
suggested,their“nickname”deriving from
such barbs.
The first Shaker community was started
in New Lebanon, N.Y. Even though now
it is a school,there is no mistaking that it is
a former Shaker village. A mile distance
(although several by modern routes 22 and
20) is its mill,now the Inn at the Shaker Mill
Farm B&B,with an idyllic spot by a waterfall;
I stayed at the Hitchcock House B&B,which
was built by Shakers for a non-Shaker.Owner
TedDelanoreminiscesaboutthearea’sShak-
ers,which he remembers from his youth,and
several graceful, delicate, oval Shaker boxes
decorate his living room.
Many Shaker villages and buildings have
disappeared,or in the case of Colonie,N.Y.
and Enfield,Conn.,struggle to exist within
a municipal airport and prison,respectively.
In other areas, it seems as though every
street and house is called Shaker-this or
Shaker-that.
What I ended up with on my tour was
that all these sites are peaceful,gentle and
happy places and an important part—con-
tinuingly so—of the fabric of our region.A
For online directions, use AAA’s TripTik Travel
Planner at AAA.com/Directions.
Tourism Information:
Sabbathday Lake, Me: www.shaker.lib.me.us
Canterbury, N.H.: www.shakers.org
Hancock, Mass.: www.hancockshakervillage.org
©JonArnoldImagesLtd/Alamy
PhotobyTerenceBaker
A Shaker house in Alfred,Me.
Shaker jacket and hat at Hancock ShakerVillage,Mass.