Last active Shaker Village in America preserves traditions

By Dina Mendros

Maine is home to countless natural and cultural treasures, but few are as unique, or as historically significant, as the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester. 

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New
Gloucester was founded in 1931 with the
goal of educating the public about Shakerism.
A museum there exhibits traditional Shaker
crafts such as woodenware bowls and a 
collection of 27,000 Shaker items.
COURTESY PHOTO  

This remarkable site, the last active Shaker community in the United States, blends serene natural landscapes with centuries of living history. Spread across 1,800 acres of rolling farmland, orchards, gardens, and forest, the village remains home to the final three practicing Shakers, who continue to preserve their traditions while welcoming visitors from around the world.

The Shaker Museum, a central feature of the village, opens for the season on Saturday, May 23 and remains open through Indigenous People’s Day. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, giving guests ample time to explore the grounds, tour historic buildings, and learn about the Shakers’ enduring legacy.

The Shaker movement began in Manchester, England in the mid-1700s, founded by Mother Ann Lee. Facing persecution for their beliefs – including communal living, pacifism, and celibacy – Lee and several followers emigrated to America in 1774. They settled near Albany, New York, where their message of simplicity, equality, and devotion quickly attracted converts.

After the American Revolution, the faith spread rapidly throughout New York and New England. By 1824, the Shakers had established 19 self-sufficient communities stretching from Maine to Indiana. At their height in the 1850s, roughly 5,000 Shakers lived and worked in these villages.

The Sabbathday Lake Shaker Museum was founded in 1931 by Sisters Iona Sedgley and Ethel Peacock with the goal of educating the public about Shakerism. It remains the only museum created by Shakers themselves to interpret their culture firsthand. Today, the museum introduces visitors to the village’s historic buildings and traditional crafts, offering a rare window into more than two centuries of Shaker life in Maine.

Inside the museum’s 27 period exhibit rooms, guests can explore an extraordinary collection of nearly 75,000 items. These include Shaker furniture, folk art, tools, textiles, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and artwork. The collection represents every Shaker community known to have existed, with special emphasis on the Maine villages of Sabbathday Lake, Alfred, Gorham, and Poland Hill. The depth and breadth of the archives make it one of the most significant Shaker collections in the world.

The Museum Visitors’ Center, located in the 1850 Boys’ Shop, is open throughout the regular season. It features books, Shaker-made goods, locally crafted woodenware and baskets, and a wide selection of culinary herbs and medicinal teas - products long associated with Shaker ingenuity and self-sufficiency.

Upstairs, the exhibit “Come Little Children, Come to Zion: Growing Up at Shaker Village” offers a vivid look at 19th-century childhood in Maine’s Shaker communities. Set in the very rooms where Shaker children once lived, the exhibit includes a recording of Sister Mildred recounting her experiences growing up at the Alfred Shaker Village, choosing a Shaker life as an adult, and eventually moving to Sabbathday Lake.

Although the Shaker population has dwindled, the community emphasizes that their faith remains meaningful today. As their website explains, “Shakerism is not, as many would claim, an anachronism… It teaches above all else that God is Love and that our most solemn duty is to show forth that God who is love in the World.”

For more details, visit hmaineshakers.com/ or the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village Facebook page. <