Enfield Shakers Historic District | |
Location | Shaker, Taylor and Cybulski Rds., Enfield, Connecticut |
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Coordinates | 42°0′42″N72°30′57″W / 42.01167°N 72.51583°W |
Area | 110 acres (45 ha) |
Built | 1827 |
NRHP reference No. | 79002663 [1] |
Added to NRHP | May 21, 1979 |
Community | Enfield Shaker Village (Connecticut) [2] |
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Dates | 1792-1917 |
Bishopric | Hancock |
Spiritual name | City of Union |
Families | Church, North, South, East, West |
Maximum population | 215 in 1850 |
Topics |
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Notable people |
Founders
Other members |
The Enfield Shakers Historic District encompasses some of the surviving remnants of a former Shaker community in Enfield, Connecticut. Founded in the 1780s, the Enfield Shaker community remained active until 1917. The surviving buildings of their once large community complexes are located in and around Taylor Road in northeastern Enfield, and were listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The listing included 15 contributing buildings and one contributing site. [1]
The Enfield Shaker community was the only Shaker settlement in Connecticut (others were in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky) and was significant for its garden-seed business. The Enfield settlement, was founded in the 1780s, and lasted until 1917. There were three distinct centers of development, called "families" by the Shakers. [3] In 1930, 1600 acres of the former settlement were purchased by the State of Connecticut to establish a new prison farm[3]; eventually becoming the state's largest prison complex.
The district included all 15 buildings that survive, out of about six times as many existing in 1917. In 1978, the surviving buildings include a meetinghouse, a large brick residence, an ice house, five barns, a sawmill, a slaughterhouse, a laundry, and several workshops, in three village-like clusters. Most of these buildings date to the period 1830–60, when the community was at its height. These buildings, as well as a portion of Shaker-developed landscape are located mainly on the west side of Taylor Road between Moody Road in the south and Sandhill Road to the north. A few buildings are on Cybulski Road north of Moody, nearly surrounded by modern development. [3]
Enfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to the north, Somers to the east, East Windsor and Ellington to the south, and the Connecticut River to the west.
Gales Ferry is a village in the town of Ledyard, Connecticut, United States. It is located along the eastern bank of the Thames River. The village developed as a result of having a ferry to Uncasville located at this site, and from which the village was named. Gales Ferry was listed as a census-designated place for the 2010 Census, with a population of 1,162.
Canterbury Shaker Village is a historic site and museum in Canterbury, New Hampshire, United States. It was one of a number of Shaker communities founded in the 19th century.
The Wilcox, Crittenden Mill, also known as Wilcox, Crittenden Mill Historic District, is a 17-acre (6.9 ha) property in Middletown, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was the location of the Wilcox, Crittenden company, a marine hardware firm. The historic district listing included four contributing buildings and three other contributing sites.
The Ethel Felder Webster House is a historic two-story home in the Enfield historic district in Austin, Texas. The home was built in 1917 and was among the first five built on Enfield Road. All were completed by 1918 and are listed in the city directory for that year. It is the only surviving house of these originals.
The Cheney Brothers Historic District was a center of the silk industry in Manchester, Connecticut, in the late 19th and early 20th century. The 175-acre (71 ha) district includes over 275 mill buildings, workers houses, churches, schools and Cheney family mansions. These structures represent the well-preserved company town of the Cheney Brothers silk manufacturing company, the first America-based silk company to properly raise and process silkworms, and to develop the difficult techniques of spinning and weaving silk. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
Watervliet Shaker Historic District, in Colonie, New York, is the site of the first Shaker community. It was established in 1776. The primary Shaker community, the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, was started a bit later. Watervliet's historic 1848 Shaker meetinghouse has been restored and is used for public events, such as concerts.
Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker commune in Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It emerged in the towns of Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond in the 1780s, organized in 1790, and was active until 1960. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1774 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. From 1790 until 1893, Hancock was the seat of the Hancock Bishopric, which oversaw two additional Shaker communes in Tyringham, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut.
The Hazardville Historic District is a historic district in the Hazardville section of Enfield, Connecticut, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The South Glastonbury Historic District is a historic district in Glastonbury, Connecticut. It encompasses the historic village center of South Glastonbury, which was first settled in the 17th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and enlarged in 2009 to include properties further along Main Street as far as Chestnut Hill Road. Locals refer to it as SoG.
The Hotchkissville Historic District is a historic district in the town of Woodbury, Connecticut, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The district encompasses most of the historic village of Hotchkissville, which is centered at the junction of Washington and Weekeepeemee roads. The village began as a dispersed rural agricultural community, but developed in the 19th century with the arrival of industry, primarily the manufacture of textiles. Despite this, the village has retained a significantly rural character, and includes a broad cross-section of 18th- and 19th-century architectural styles.
Harvard Shaker Village Historic District is a historic former Shaker community located roughly on Shaker Road, South Shaker Road, and Maple Lane in Harvard, Massachusetts. It was the second oldest Shaker settlement in Massachusetts and the third oldest in the United States.
The Tyringham Shaker Settlement Historic District was a historic Shaker village on Jerusalem Road in Tyringham, Massachusetts. Among the buildings in the village were mills and workshops. There was a reduction in members prior to the American Civil War and in the 1870s the remaining "believers" moved to Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts and Enfield Shakers Village in Connecticut.
The Enfield Shaker Museum is an outdoor history museum and historic district in Enfield, New Hampshire, in the United States. It is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Shakers, a Protestant religious denomination, who lived on the site from 1793 to 1923. The museum features exhibitions, artifacts, eight Shaker buildings and restored Shaker gardens. It is located in a valley between Mount Assurance and Mascoma Lake in Enfield.
The Windham Village Historic District is one of two historic districts in Windham, Vermont, encompassing the dispersed rural village near the town's geographic center. The area was principally developed in the early decades of the 19th century, and has had only modest alterations since then. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Coleman Station Historic District is located around the former New York Central Railroad Coleman's station in the Town of North East, New York, United States, a short distance south of the village of Millerton. It is a rural area including several large farms in the southeastern corner of the town. At almost three square miles (7.33 km2), it is the largest historic district entirely within Dutchess County and the second largest in the county.
The East Weatogue Historic District is a 490-acre (200 ha) historic district in the town of Simsbury, Connecticut that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. It then included 102 contributing buildings, 10 contributing sites, 11 contributing structures, and one other contributing object. The district encompasses a largely agrarian rural village centered at the junction of Hartford Road and East Weatogue Street, whose early development dates to the late 17th century, with the oldest surviving buildings dating to 1730. Most of the properties in the district are Colonial, Federal, or Greek Revival in character, with only a few later Victorian houses. In the early 20th century Colonial Revival houses sympathetic to the earlier buildings.
The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, it is thought that these communities spread into the cotton towns of North West England, with the football team of Bury taking on the Shaker name to acknowledge the Shaker community of Bury.The Shakers left England for the English colonies in North America in 1774. As they gained converts, the Shakers established numerous communities in the late-18th century through the entire 19th century. The first villages organized in Upstate New York and the New England states, and, through Shaker missionary efforts, Shaker communities appeared in the Midwestern states. Communities of Shakers were governed by area bishoprics and within the communities individuals were grouped into "family" units and worked together to manage daily activities. By 1836 eighteen major, long-term societies were founded, comprising some sixty families, along with a failed commune in Indiana. Many smaller, short-lived communities were established over the course of the 19th century, including two failed ventures into the Southeastern United States and an urban community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Shakers peaked in population by the 1840s and early 1850s, with a membership between 4,000 and 9,000. Growth in membership began to stagnate by the mid 1850s. In the turmoil of the American Civil War and subsequent Industrial Revolution, Shakerism went into severe decline. As the number of living Shakers diminished, Shaker communes were disbanded or otherwise ceased to exist. Some of their buildings and sites have become museums, and many are historic districts under the National Register of Historic Places. The only active community is Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, which is composed of at least three active members.
The Enfield Village Historic District encompasses the historic 19th century village center of Enfield, New Hampshire. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Multiple buildings of the district were added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The Goodrich Four Corners Historic District encompasses a rural 19th-century village center in rural northern Norwich, Vermont. The village arose in the late 18th century, settled by the son of one of Norwich's early proprietors. The district has well-preserved examples of architecture ranging from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.