This large wood-framed stucco building is imposing in its size and interior. A very similar-sized Brother’s Shop was once just behind the Sister’s Shop, but fell into disrepair and was removed in the 1970s.
The Spring House is the source of an elaborate water system that provided the Church Family with a reliable supply of water to serve the community.
The South Family raised animals and grew crops, necessitating the construction of a barn. Work on the barn began in 1834 and the structure was completed in April 1836.
This dwelling house was the residence for the “novitiate”, where prospective adult converts lived.
This is the one remaining structure from the North Family portion of the Shaker Village
The Shakers in Harvard became one of the major producers of medicinal herbs in 19th-century America. By the 1840s, the Harvard community alone was selling nearly 200 kinds of medicinal herbs, along with extracts, powders, oils, and patent remedies. This charming building was made of stone due to the disk of fire during the drying process.
The Harvard Shaker Village today comprises 12 remaining Shaker Structures, a burial ground, and the Holy Hill of Zion, where outdoor worship once took place.
Built about 1800, this small building was identified on Village maps as the ministry’s shop or just plain “shop.”
The Square House is the cornerstone of the Harvard Shaker Village. Although it predates their arrival, Harvard and visiting Shakers revered it due to its direct connection with Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee.
Traditionally called the Office Shop, and more recently referred to as the Carpenter’s Shop, this building was built in 1878, and adapted for a residence in the 1930s.
The New Office is the largest building in the Church Family, and its interior is largely unchanged since the Shakers left in 1918.
The Ministry Shop, built in 1848 is the only remaining brick building in Harvard’s Shaker Village.
For over a century, the Shaker community in Harvard, Massachusetts, operated as a communal society rooted in shared property, pacifism, and equality. Utilizing archival records and manifest journals, we provide biographical data on some of the Harvard Shakers.
Discover the enduring legacy of the Shakers, whose philosophy on furniture and community was remarkably ahead of its time
Babbitt, a tool maker and inventor, was a member of the Harvard Shaker community. Inventions attributed to her include the circular saw.
“My first dinner at the Shaker Community was at noon that Friday. That was a traumatic meal for me. I had been brought up in the Catholic Church at a time when it did not accept eating meat on a Friday.”
Sister Frances A. Carr, “Growing Up Shaker”
Robert C. Anderson in his “Directions of a Town” wrote: “The first task of the Shakers at Harvard in their growing years was the cultivation and improvement of the tracts of land they had acquired, probably the worst agricultural land in Harvard.”
Mother Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, established a community in Harvard in 1781, the second oldest Shaker settlement in the United States.
The Harvard Shaker Cemetery, also known as the “Lollipop Cemetery,” is a unique burial ground located in the Shaker Village of Harvard, Massachusetts.
The Shaker Stone Barn was built in 1835. Located at 101 South Shaker Road, the barn is now a ruin, but some of its most significant and striking masonry features still remain.
Born in Still River in 1864, Eleanor created hand-colored photographs documenting buildings of the Harvard Shaker Village.
Clara Endicott Sears was born in Boston, Mass., on December 16, 1862, the daughter of Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield Sears.
Ned Quist, a retired academic librarian, gave an illustrated talk about the changes the Shakers made to the landscape of northeastern Harvard, showing what used to be there between 1791 and 1917 and the few buildings that remain today.
Open House at the Harvard Historical Society featuring our permanent Shaker Collection and a unique Shaker desk on loan to the society. The members prepared a few Shaker Recipes that could be tasted during this event.
People were invited to admire a newly arrived Shaker Desk, on loan to the society, and learn about two special Shakers who might have used it.
