Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
New Gloucester, Maine
Unlike the other Shaker Villages we have visited, this is the only one that has active members. Brother Arnold Hadd and Sister June are the only remaining Shakers living in a Shaker village anywhere in the United States. The most recent to pass away was sister Frances, at age 89. (See newspaper obit. towards the end of the post).
I was very fortunate to have some of Brother Arnold's fresh strawberry jam, purchased last June (2017). Because this is an active village, 12 of the buildings are closed to visitors.
Above and below photos taken different years and seasons.
This Shaker village, located in New Gloucester, Maine was established in 1783 by a group of Shaker missionaries, is the only active Shaker village in the world. This village has 17 historic structures, which date from the 1780s through the 1950s, located on 1,800 acres of farm and forest land.
We have been here three times, and never took a tour, for various reasons. But, we intend to on our the next visit. I really want to see the library. I will say, there are always a lot of workshops going on, check out their program, so you can't go into those rooms.
From their webpage, "Six of the 18 existing structures at Sabbathday Lake are open to the public. Throughout these buildings there are twenty-seven exhibit rooms which explore a continuum of over 200 years of Shaker heritage in the Maine Communities."
The Village is on both sides of the roads. The houses on the right are, what I call, upper buildings (including church); to the left are lower buildings.
Below six photos are upper buildings.
The lower side of the road, showing four photos. Parking is behind these buildings.
Back street. Parking is on this road, as well as the restrooms, the store and other buildings, including the barn and animals.
This is where we park, unfortunately, the lot always seems full, probably for the classes.
Museum store and gift shop.
Shaker store, on the main road (where the first photo was taken).
Unwanted farm animals without homes are taken care of in the barn. They live out their lives here.
Other Shaker Villages I visited:
http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2018/07/hancock-shaker-village-pittsfield.html Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA
http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2018/07/enfield-shaker-village-enfield-new.html Enfield Shaker Village, Enfield, New Hampshire
http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2016/10/canterbury-shaker-village-what-lovely.html Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury, New Hampshire
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