Mother Ann Lee’s Shakers Left Behind This Amazing Massachusetts Village You Can Visit Today

The Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts

In 1783, a group of religious folks bought land in western Mass and built their version of heaven on earth.

Their version involved no private property, no marriage, no waste. Not even contact between men and women. Just shared meals, shared work, and furniture so beautiful it belongs in museums.

Here’s how the historic Hancock Shaker Village became America’s most successful commune.

The Shakers Who Founded Hancock

Ann Lee never planned to start a religion. She worked in an English cotton mill and lost four children in infancy.

In 1747, she joined a breakaway group from the Quakers. They shook and trembled during worship, earning the nickname “Shakers” from those who watched their ecstatic services.

Lee had powerful visions in 1770, during which God allegedly revealed that sexuality caused humanity’s downfall.

Inspired by this, she sailed to America in 1774 with eight followers.

After settling near Albany, Lee traveled throughout New England seeking converts. Farmers from Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond joined in the 1780s.

Hancock Shaker Village

Not everyone was happy about what Lee was doing. Local officials fined Lee twenty dollars and ordered her to leave the state. They claimed she disturbed the peace with her radical preaching.

The Shaker leader also had to flee angry mobs who attacked her during missionary travels through Massachusetts.

In 1783, Daniel Goodrich Sr. opened his Hancock home to Ann Lee as a safe refuge.

This eventually became the official settlement in 1790 and the third major Shaker community in America.

By the 1830s, over 300 members worked 3,000 acres of fields, orchards, and workshops in what they would call the “City of Peace”.

The Community’s Unique Structure

Hancock Shaker Village divided its 300 members into six “families.”

These weren’t blood relatives but administrative groups called Church, Second, East, West, South, and North.

Two men and two women led each family, aka the elders and eldresses, who had equal authority to make decisions.

Hancock served as headquarters for the Hancock Bishopric, which also oversaw Shaker communities in Tyringham, Massachusetts and Enfield, Connecticut.

At the very top of the hierarchy was ministry of two men and two women. They answered only to the central Shaker leadership at Mount Lebanon, New York.

The Famous Round Stone Barn

The Round Stone Barn drew visitors from the moment Shakers built it in 1826, including famous authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.

The circular structure solved practical farming problems. Wagons drove in one door, circled around to unload hay, and exited without dangerous backing maneuvers.

The Brick Dwelling House

The four-story structure housed over 100 brothers and sisters with wide hallways splitting it down the middle.

Men lived on one side, women on the other. Separate stairways prevented brothers and sisters from passing on the stairs.

Water pipes ran through the building, giving it indoor plumbing decades before most American homes enjoyed such luxuries.

Shaker Industry and Farming

Hancock Shakers maintained a working dairy farm into the 1950s.

The community’s orchards grew 29 varieties of apple trees, from which they pressed cider, dried fruit, and created preserves from each harvest.

The Shakers also made furniture, brooms, baskets, and textiles. They sold these items to “the World’s people” – their term for non-Shakers.

The Daily Life of Hancock Shakers

The bell rang at 4:30 a.m. at Hancock Shaker Village. Brothers and sisters rose to begin their daily devotions before breakfast, during which they ate at separate tables in the dining room.

Work filled most daylight hours. Sisters cooked, sewed, wove cloth, preserved food, and tended gardens. Brothers farmed, built furniture, made tools, and managed livestock.

Evening gatherings combined worship with discussions of community concerns.

Core Shaker Beliefs at Hancock

Hancock Shakers committed to celibacy as their defining practice. They viewed sexual desire as the root of human sin and believed abstinence created spiritual purity.

Pacifism also guided their interactions with the outside world, which meant they refused military service and avoided conflict, even during the Civil War.

And decades before emancipation, the Hancock Shakers were already welcoming black members with open arms at the settlement.

The Decline of Hancock Village

Mount Lebanon’s Central Ministry took control of Hancock’s affairs in 1893, because the once-independent community no longer had enough members to govern itself.

Factory jobs lured young people away from rural communities. And cities grew, fewer Americans joined religious communes.

On top of that, the Shaker commitment to celibacy meant new members only came through conversion. Without births to replenish their numbers, the community gradually aged.

In 1959, Hancock sold 550 acres of woodland to Massachusetts for the Pittsfield State Forest.

By 1960, only 974 acres remained with 11 major buildings and 10 smaller structures. The few elderly Shakers could no longer maintain the property.

From Religious Community to Living Museum

Frances Hall, Hancock’s last trustee, began selling buildings and land in the 1940s to reduce tax burdens on the shrinking community.

Laurence and Amy Bess Miller led the Hancock Shaker Village Steering Committee that purchased the property for $125,000 in 1960, with the goal of turning it into a living history museum.

Eldress Fannie Estabrook died in 1960 at age 90. Her burial in the Hancock cemetery marked the end of continuous Shaker presence since 1783.

Visiting Hancock Shaker Village

Hancock Shaker Village is at 34 Lebanon Mountain Road in Hancock, Massachusetts.

The village opens daily from April through October, 10am to 5pm. Winter hours run November through March, with reduced days and hours. Adult admission costs $20.

The main entrance building contains restrooms, a gift shop, and the Woodlife Kitchen café serving fresh sandwiches, salads, and soups.

Allow at least two hours to explore the 20 historic buildings, farm, and gardens.

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