by Terence Baker

Alfred, 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 to Alfred 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

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The Shakers are known for their delicate oval boxes.34 Car & Travel July 2008

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, maybe they moved a little, 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 Ted Delano reminisces about the area’s Shak-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.usCanterbury, N.H.: www.shakers.orgHancock, Mass.: www.hancockshakervillage.org

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A Shaker house in Alfred, Me.

Shaker jacket and hat at Hancock Shaker Village, Mass.