Shaker Museum at South Union

Last updated
South Union Shakertown Historic District
South Union Shaker Center Dwelling House.jpg
Front of the main dwelling house
USA Kentucky location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationKY 73 at Louisville and Nashville RR tracks, and jct. of U.S. 68, South Union, Kentucky
Coordinates 36°53′5″N86°38′40″W / 36.88472°N 86.64444°W / 36.88472; -86.64444 Coordinates: 36°53′5″N86°38′40″W / 36.88472°N 86.64444°W / 36.88472; -86.64444
Area9.5 acres (3.8 ha)
ArchitectMultiple
NRHP reference No. 75000796 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 03, 1975

The Shaker Museum at South Union is a museum of Shaker history located at the site of the South Union Shaker Village in Auburn, Kentucky, United States.

Contents

The village was established by the Shakers in 1807 and closed in 1922. The museum is located in the 1824 Centre Family dwelling, an 1824 40-room Centre House, filled with original artifacts exemplifying the Shakers' craftsmanship and unique way of life.

The museum is on the South Union Shakertown Historic Trail, included in the US National Register of Historic Places. [2] The Shaker Museum at South Union is a non-profit educational organization devoted to preserving the Shaker culture and legacy.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercer County, Kentucky</span> County in Kentucky, United States

Mercer County is a county located in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,772. Its county seat is Harrodsburg. The county was formed from Lincoln County, Virginia in 1785 and is named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. It was formerly a prohibition or dry county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonie, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Colonie is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. It is the most-populous suburb of Albany, and is the third-largest town in area in Albany County, occupying approximately 11% of the county. Several hamlets exist within the town. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 85,590.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic Washington State Park</span>

Historic Washington State Park is a 101-acre (41 ha) Arkansas state park in Hemsptead County, Arkansas in the United States. The museum village contains a collection of pioneer artifacts from the town of Washington, Arkansas, which is a former pioneer settlement along the Southwest Trail. Walking interpretive tours are available throughout the 54 buildings. Washington served as a major trading point along the Southwest Trail, evolving into the Hempstead county seat and later the capital of Arkansas from 1863 to 1865 when Little Rock was threatened during the Civil War. The original plat of Washington was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 as the Washington Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleasant Hill, Kentucky</span> United States historic place

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, USA, is the site of a Shaker religious community that was active from 1805 to 1910. Following a preservationist effort that began in 1961, the site, now a National Historic Landmark, has become a popular tourist destination. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, or Shakertown, as it is known by residents of the area, is located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Lexington, in Kentucky's Bluegrass region. It is a National Historic Landmark District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruitlands Museum</span> United States historic place

Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts, is a museum about multiple visions of America on the site of the short-lived utopian community, Fruitlands. The museum includes the Fruitlands farmhouse, a museum about Shaker life, an art gallery with 19th-century landscape paintings, vernacular American portraits, and other changing exhibitions, and a museum of Native American history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitewater Shaker Settlement</span> United States historic place

The Whitewater Shaker Settlement is a former Shaker settlement near New Haven in Crosby Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Established in 1824 and closed in 1916, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as a historic district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Lebanon Shaker Society</span> United States historic place

Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, also known as New Lebanon Shaker Society, was a communal settlement of Shakers in New Lebanon, New York. The earliest converts began to "gather in" at that location in 1782 and built their first meetinghouse in 1785. The early Shaker Ministry, including Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright, the architects of Shakers' gender-balanced government, lived there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hancock Shaker Village</span> United States historic place

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate Monument in Danville</span> United States historic place

The Confederate Monument in Danville, originally located between Centre College and the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Main and College Streets in Danville, Kentucky, was a monument dedicated to the Confederate States of America that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The monument was dedicated in 1910 by the surviving veterans of the Confederacy of Boyle County, Kentucky and the Kate Morrison Breckinridge Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). In 2021, it was relocated to a museum in Meade County, Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Shaker Village Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker Village Historic District (Shaker Heights, Ohio)</span> Historic district in Ohio, United States

Shaker Village Historic District is a historic district between Fairmount and Lomond Boulevards, and Green, Warrensville Center, Becket, and Coventry Roads in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The district comprises roughly seventy percent of the city of Shaker Heights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enfield Shaker Museum</span> United States historic place

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Union Shaker Site</span> United States historic place

North Union Shaker Site is a historic site in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The site was founded by Shakers in 1822 and was added to the National Register in 1974. The Shakers ran grist and grain mills from the lakes created when they dammed Doan Creek. The community ceased to exist in 1899. All of the buildings that had been part of the North Union Shaker community have been demolished, and 280 of the original 1,000 acres are Shaker Lakes parkland, which includes walking trails and a Shaker archaeological site, the Shaker Historical Museum and Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Union Shaker Center House and Preservatory</span> United States historic place

South Union Shaker Center House and Preservatory is a historic Shaker building on U.S. 68 in South Union, Kentucky. It was built in 1822 and added to the National Register in 1974. Located within the building is the Shaker Museum at South Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Shaker Historic District</span> Historic district in Maine, United States

Alfred Shaker Historic District is a historic district in Alfred, Maine, with properties on both sides of Shaker Hill Road. The area had its first Shaker "believers" in 1783 following visiting with Mother Ann Lee and became an official community starting in 1793 when a meetinghouse was built. It was home to Maine's oldest and largest Shaker community. Two notable events were the songwriting of Joseph Brackett, including, according to most accounts, Simple Gifts, and the spiritual healing of the sick by the Shakers. When the Alfred Shakers products and goods were no longer competitive with mass-produced products and the membership had dwindled significantly, the village was closed in 1931 and members moved to Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, also in Maine.

South Union is an unincorporated community located in Logan County, Kentucky, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker communities</span> Settlements of the Shakers sect of Christianity

The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, the Shakers left that country 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 Civil War Trust's Civil War Discovery Trail is a heritage tourism program that links more than 600 U.S. Civil War sites in more than 30 states. The program is one of the White House Millennium Council's sixteen flagship National Millennium Trails. Sites on the trail include battlefields, museums, historic sites, forts and cemeteries.

Micajah Burnett was an American Shaker architect, builder, engineer, surveyor, mathematician, and town planner.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. South Union Shakertown Historic Trail, National Park Service, USA.

Further reading