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| Enfield Shaker Village | |
|---|---|
| Name | Enfield Shaker Village |
| Location | Enfield, New Hampshire, United States |
| Built | 1793 |
| Built for | United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing |
Enfield Shaker Village was a religious communal settlement of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing located in Enfield, New Hampshire on the shores of Mascoma Lake. Established in the late 18th century, the village became part of the wider network of Shaker communities across New England and the Mid-Atlantic States, notable for distinctive Shaker furniture, agricultural innovations, and communal practices. The site intersected with regional transport routes, cultural institutions, and national currents including industrialization, religious revival, and preservation movements.
Enfield Shaker Village was established by converts influenced by leaders such as Mother Ann Lee and regional figures who also shaped communities like Watervliet Shaker Village, Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, and Canterbury Shaker Village. The settlement developed amid the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War and during the Second Great Awakening, expanding in parallel with communities at Hancock Shaker Village and Pleasant Hill Shaker Village. Enfield’s records show interaction with travelers on the Old Province Road and commerce linked to Boston and Portland, Maine. Visitors and correspondents included figures associated with Transcendentalism and contemporaneous institutions such as Harvard University and Yale University, reflecting the era’s intellectual exchanges. Over the 19th century Enfield weathered episodes tied to the War of 1812, the Panic of 1837, and the Civil War draft debates affecting rural New England.
Enfield followed the doctrines of the United Society, emphasizing celibacy, communal ownership, and spiritual communication attributed to Mother Ann Lee; these beliefs mirrored practices at Shaker Mountain, Sabbathday Lake, and Hancock Shaker Village. The community observed communal governance with stewardship roles comparable to those at Mount Lebanon, employing eldership systems and trustees similar to other Shaker societies. Worship included ecstatic song and dance traditions documented alongside performances in places like Old Sturbridge Village and corresponded with contemporary movements including Methodist Episcopal Church revival gatherings and interactions with Quakers and Mennonites over communal living debates. The Enfield society maintained correspondences with reformers connected to the Abolitionist movement, Temperance movement, and educational figures associated with Oberlin College and Amherst College.
Buildings at Enfield reflected Shaker architectural principles seen at Canterbury Shaker Village and Mount Lebanon Shaker Society: meetinghouses, dwelling houses, barns, workshops, and a centrally planned layout oriented toward efficiency. Construction techniques related to traditions practiced by craftsmen who later influenced Shaker furniture makers whose work entered collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Yale University Art Gallery. The meetinghouse plan paralleled designs at Phillipsburg, while agricultural barns shared features with structures cataloged by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Landscape planning echoed patterns documented at Shelburne Farms and designs by practitioners influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted’s contemporaries.
Enfield’s economy combined agriculture, textile production, and craftsmanship as in other societies such as Canterbury and Sabbathday Lake. The village produced seed crops, dairy goods, and woven textiles sold in markets reaching Boston, Concord, New Hampshire, and Montreal. Industrial activities included small-scale manufacturing of brooms, baskets, and woodenware akin to products from Mount Lebanon and Watervliet, contributing to trade networks involving Merrimack River merchants and Boston Manufacturing Company routes. Innovations in seed selection and animal husbandry connected Enfield to agricultural societies including the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and exchanges with agricultural journals associated with Ithaca-area institutions. Trustees managed communal funds and transactions with regional banks and firms in Hanover, New Hampshire and Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Daily life at Enfield mirrored Shaker practices of regimented schedules, communal meals, and shared chores, resembling rhythms at Hancock and Canterbury. Music, hymnody, and dance—elements that later attracted scholars from Smithsonian Institution and collectors from the Library of Congress—were central, with artisans producing goods that entered collections at the Cooper Hewitt and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Education and literacy were emphasized through in-house schooling similar to programs at Mount Lebanon and connections to pedagogical ideas circulating at Brown University and Middlebury College. Relations with nearby towns such as Lebanon, Hanover, and Enfield Center created social intersections with newspapers like the New Hampshire Gazette and travelers documented in the papers of writers affiliated with The Atlantic and Harper's Magazine.
Like other Shaker villages, Enfield faced decline in the late 19th and 20th centuries due to decreasing conversions, strict celibacy, and societal shifts tied to urbanization and industrial labor migrations that also affected Lowell, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire. The community’s dissolution paralleled closures at Mount Lebanon and reductions at Canterbury, with lands sold to private owners and institutions including colleges and historical societies. Artifacts and archives dispersed to repositories such as the New Hampshire Historical Society, Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, and university special collections at Dartmouth College and Yale University.
Preservation efforts for Enfield involved collaboration among local historical organizations, state agencies like the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, and national groups including the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic American Buildings Survey. Portions of the village and associated landscape have been integrated into municipal parks, conservation easements connected to Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and museum stewardship linked to Canterbury Shaker Village and regional heritage tourism networks including the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Artifacts and furniture attributed to Enfield influences appear in exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while scholarly attention continues from departments at Dartmouth College, University of New Hampshire, and Harvard University.
Category:Shaker communities Category:Enfield, New Hampshire