Canterbury, New Hampshire

 

 Canterbury Shaker Village was founded in the 1780's, the sixth of nineteen Shaker communities. At its peak in 1860, some 300 people lived, worked and worshipped in 100 buildings on 4,000 acres, and made their living from farming, selling seeds and herbs, manufacturing medicines, and making crafts.  The religious group that we know today as the "Shakers" was formed in 18th-century England when dissidents from various religions, including English Quakers and Methodists, formed a religious society based on prophetic doctrine. The group, formally called the "United Society of Believers", were referred to by outsiders as Shaking Quakers, or Shakers, because of their use of ecstatic dance in worship.  Eventually they embraced this name. 

Since 1992 The Village operates as a museum when the last Shaker sister in residence died.

 



          

        

                   Canterbury Shaker Village is one of the oldest, most typical and most completely preserved of the Shaker Villages.   Designated as a National Historic Landmark for its architectural integrity and significance, the Village has 25 original Shaker buildings, 4 reconstructed Shaker buildings.

 

 Shakers lived apart in self-contained communities from Maine to Kentucky. Within their villages they practiced equality of the sexes and races, common ownership of goods, celibacy and pacifism. They strove to make their villages an earthly heaven. Two hundred years of devoting their "Hands to Work and Hearts to God" created a legacy of architecture, furniture, crafts, inventions and song greatly admired today.

 

Laundry House

 

Sewing room

 

Knitting machines

 

Dormitory

 

Bedroom

Cloaks made for sale

 

 4 tiered oven with rotating racks invented by one of the sisters to bake 60 pies at one time.

 

 Maple Sugar House

 

 

                    There are 3 remaining Shakers living at the Shaker Village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine looking for new members if anyone is interested.