Community

Melissa Williams, Chief Development Officer

The twinkling white lights strung across the Village instill a quiet sense of inner peace and renewal as you walk down the historic turnpike. It feels this way every year as the calendar turns from December to January, but this year there is an extra sense of something magical in the air.

2024 marked the 250th anniversary of the Shakers’ arrival in America. As we commemorate this milestone there is so much to celebrate this year at Pleasant Hill—thanks to the incredible support of our community of donors, guests, volunteers, staff and Trustees.  It’s your support through your visits and your gifts of time and treasure that preserves history, stewards 3,000 acres of natural and cultural landscape and inspires memory-making experiences for guests of all ages.

Below are a few highlights from 2024, made possible through your support:

• Donors came together to meet the Trustees’ Matching Challenge, raising more than $325,000 for Shaker Village’s mission.
  
• Significant progress was made in preserving the site’s history through preservation projects:
  • Exterior carpentry at the West Family Sisters’ Shop including restored windows, doors and the soffit.
  • A fresh coat of paint completed the restoration of the Carriage House.
  • Ongoing maintenance and repairs were completed at historic buildings across the Village.

• Our teams cared for the cultural landscape making upgrades to the 30.5-mile trail system.
  • New benches were added at key spots in the Preserve to add peaceful rest stops for hikers.
  • New bluebird boxes and fishing line disposal receptacles were installed to support biodiversity and protect habitats.
  • Clearing of invasive plants began in key areas along Highway 68 and near the West Lot Dwelling to enhance our habitat focus.

• This year, we offered new and engaging experiences for guests including:
  • New field trip programs were introduced for schools, including If Walls Could Talk, which invites students to explore the architectural history of the Village.
• • The new Flushed Away daily program explored Shaker innovations in waste management while highlighting Shaker ingenuity.
• • Two temporary exhibits were featured this year: Spark! Places of Innovation highlighted the intersection of Shaker ingenuity and contemporary innovation, while Pleasant Hill Paintings: An Exhibition of Work – Charles Jolly, showcased vibrant artwork that brought Shaker Village to life.
  • A special experience celebrated Elizabeth Kremer’s role in the establishment of Shaker Village’s food service during the Fresh Food Adventure: A Step Back in Time.

• The success of the Farm continues to be a cornerstone of our sustainability efforts.
  • Guests learn about the benefits of nutrient-dense, locally grown foods through hands-on adventures such as Taste of Fresh and Shaker Orchards presented daily at the Farm.
  • The addition of Dr. H.P. Lovelace as the new farm manager signals an exciting chapter in expanding the farm’s role, focusing on holistic wellness, biodiversity and innovation.

• Shaker Village continues to be a proud local employer and economic driver in Mercer County.
  
  • Collaborations with regional businesses and artisans have helped us create a thriving, welcoming environment for guests and a diverse staff.
  • The Village’s nine annual signature events draw thousands of guests to central Kentucky each year, stimulating local businesses, creating seasonal jobs and fostering community engagement.

As the year ends, Shaker Village remains a place where history is not only preserved but where it is
lived—through every conversation, every meal and every guest who explores the grounds. We’re looking forward to an even brighter year ahead filled with new exciting projects and countless
memory-making moments.

Melissa Williams, Chief Development Officer

This National Philanthropy Day, we are excited to recognize Gene Carpenter, a dedicated volunteer and generous donor whose connection to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill spans over five decades. National Philanthropy Day, celebrated on November 15, is a time to honor those whose philanthropic efforts enrich our communities. Gene’s story is one of personal passion and a deep commitment to preserving the legacy of Shaker Village.

Gene first visited Shaker Village in the late 1960s with her mother for lunch at The Trustees’ Office dining room. From that first visit, she was captivated by the simplicity and craftsmanship of Shaker architecture and design—a love that would go on to influence furnishings in her own homes and would draw her back over the years. Her strong connection to Shaker Village even played a role in her decision to move to Danville, drawn by its proximity to the place she held so dear.

After relocating, Gene became a vital part of our collections department, volunteering her time to help preserve the history she loves. Her projects have ranged from organizing historic photos to cataloging “mystery boxes” of artifacts. In addition to her volunteer efforts, Gene has made a profound commitment to the future of Shaker Village by including us in her estate plans. Her intention to donate a portion of the proceeds from her estate will carry forward her love, care and concern of the Village.

Gene’s generosity and dedication serve as an inspiration to us all. As she reflects, “Shaker Village has had a profound influence on my life for over 50 years, and I hope it remains a place of beauty and history for many more to come.”

We are honored to celebrate Gene Carpenter on National Philanthropy Day and thank her for the immeasurable impact she has had on our beloved village.

To learn more about volunteering and donating to Shaker Village visit our website.

Lucy Dever, Collections Specialist

We don’t tend to give the mail a lot of thought these days. With email, cellphones, and especially the internet, so-called “snail mail” is increasingly neglected, fit only for low-stakes correspondence like birthday cards or letters to Santa. But once upon a time, the mail was all-important, the lifeline connecting anyone who lived farther than a few miles’ walk.

Though it may no longer serve as our primary means of communication, the mail still brings us something that electronic messages can’t—tangible human contact. Think about that birthday card you still have in your drawer, the one with your grandma’s signature that you run your fingers over from time to time. Or the letter from a childhood pen-pal, yellowed with age but still fresh in your memory. These things are precious, physical reminders of our connection with people who are absent from us. The mail, though it may seem archaic and irrelevant in our modern world, fosters family and community—just like the Shakers.

Functional Elegance

Earlier this week, the US Postal Service released a collection of twelve stamps in honor of the 250^th anniversary of the Shakers’ arrival in America in 1774. The collection, titled “Shaker Design,” focuses not only on the beauty of Shaker craftsmanship, but also on the practical use of these objects by real people, for real working tasks. The stamps celebrate this “functional elegance” on large and small scales, from the smallest corner of a handkerchief to the expansive façade of a family dwelling. One even features the famous double spiral staircase of the Trustees’ Office here at Pleasant Hill, designed by Micajah Burnett in 1839.

The collection’s “selvage,” or backing paper, ties these twelve seemingly disparate images together with a photograph of Shaker Brother Ricardo Belden crafting oval boxes in his workshop at Hancock Shaker Village, circa 1935. The photo is striking, giving a face to these objects handcrafted long ago.

But an emphasis on human connection is far from the only thing linking the Shakers to the Postal Service. In fact, the two have a long and deeply connected history—especially at Pleasant Hill.

Celerity, Certainty, Security

The United States Postal Service was founded by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, predating the Declaration of Independence by nearly a year. Instrumental to the Revolutionary cause and indispensable to citizens of all kinds, the USPS expanded significantly westward in the late eighteenth century, and Kentucky’s first post office was established in Danville in 1792. Harrodsburg followed shortly after in 1794, giving Mercer County residents access to reliable communication networks for the first time. Mercer County’s second post office, however, was established in the spring of 1818, right here at Pleasant Hill.

The founding of the Pleasant Hill Post Office came just after the introduction of a major innovation to mail services in the Bluegrass: the stagecoach. Stagecoaches, so named because they carried out their journeys in different stages with different horses, could carry correspondence at around eight miles per hour, especially if they had macadamized, or hard paved, roads to drive on. After the introduction of the mail stagecoach in Kentucky in 1816, constructing these macadamized roads became a top priority for the young state.

In 1833, the Kentucky legislature called for the construction of a paved turnpike connecting Lexington, Harrodsburg, and Perryville to facilitate easier trade, travel, and communication. The proposed route ran through the heart of Pleasant Hill, and the Shakers quickly got to work on their portion of the new macadamized road. Spearheaded by Micajah Burnett, Pleasant Hill’s engineering wunderkind, the new turnpike was completed by 1839, and quickly became an integral part of postal services in the region.

A Rising Star (Route)

When Lexingtonian William T. Barry was appointed Postmaster General in 1829, he quickly began working on “the great mail development,” a project which would increase the reach, speed, and reliability of postal service on what was then just short of the western frontier. At the start of this venture, all mail from the eastern states was carried westward on the Cumberland Road, running from Maryland to Missouri. But soon Barry began to plan a new route into the south, branching off from the Cumberland Road in Zanesville, Ohio. This route would showcase the efficacy and potential of the mail coach—and it would run right through Pleasant Hill.

Known as the Zanesville-Florence Star Route, the road began in Zanesville, Ohio, then on to the ferry at Maysville, then stopping in Lexington, Harrodsburg, Perryville, Lebanon, Campbellsville, Glasgow, Gallatin, Nashville, and Columbia before terminating in Florence, Alabama. If a letter was destined for an address even further south, it could be taken on board a steamboat and delivered all the way down to New Orleans.

Partly conceived to facilitate this new route, Pleasant Hill’s new turnpike, with its smooth macadamized surface, was an ideal road for mail coaches. These vehicles, pulled by teams of four to six horses, were the dominant means of mail delivery in the US for nearly forty years. They only began to decline in the mid-1850s, when railroad technology had improved enough to overtake the stagecoach in both speed and efficiency. The route through Pleasant Hill was discontinued by 1877, and the post office followed in 1904.

While the mail coaches may be gone along with Pleasant Hill’s Shakers, the need for communication and connection to each other persists, beyond what’s possible in an intangible, typed message. So, this summer, why not do as the Shakers did—slow down, take a deep breath, and send a letter to someone you love.

And when you do, imagine the sound of hoofbeats.

The Shaker Design Stamp Collection can be purchased online here, onsite at Shaker Village’s Shops or at your local Post Office.

Lucy Dever, Collections Specialist

Pleasant Hill has changed a lot in the 218 years since its founding. To the Shakers, it was a home, a place separate and apart where they could worship as they wished. To the people of Mercer county in the early twentieth century, it was Shakertown, a quaint little village with odd architecture and fading memories. To those of us here today, it’s a place to connect with people past and present, and to experience the peace offered by the beautiful landscape around us. But though Pleasant Hill has been many things to many people, one aspect has stayed constant for over two centuries: Shaker hospitality.

From the Shakers’ own guest house in Trustees’ Office to Nannie Embry’s Shakertown Inn, making visitors kindly welcome has always been of the utmost importance here at Pleasant Hill. But it wasn’t until 1967 that the true spirit of Shaker hospitality manifested in our nonprofit, and it came in the form of Elizabeth Kremer.

A Culinary Life

Elizabeth Cromwell Kremer was born in 1901 in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and took an interest in food from a young age. In 1925, she graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Home Economics, and soon after set off for a restaurant career in New York City. There, she worked as one of the few female managers in the industry, often facing resistance and open criticism from men who did not like to see a woman in charge. In 1930, she returned to Kentucky to open The French Village restaurant, during which time she met and married Harold “Doc” Kremer. Though she left restaurant work in 1940 to raise her daughters Pem and Evalina, the kitchen would soon call her back.

The founding board members of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill knew a quality restaurant was a necessity, both to support the new non-profit institution and to provide a better guest experience. Mrs. Kremer was personally recruited by Chairman Earl T. Wallace in 1967, first opening a small soup-and-sandwich bar in the Old Stone Shop and later moving to the Trustees’ Office for a full-scale restaurant. Upon accepting the position, she conducted extensive research on Shaker cooking, dining, and dress, striving to make the Trustees’ Office true to the Shaker spirit while serving the very best of homegrown Kentucky cooking. Mrs. Kremer personally developed beloved recipes such as Tomato Celery Soup, and made old-fashioned dishes like Shaker Lemon Pie favorites for a new generation. In 1986, after a long and celebrated second career, her health forced her to retire, and she passed away in September 1988.

Though she may have passed, her legacy can be seen throughout the village, from the daily fare at the Trustees’ Table to the “Mind Your Head” signs scattered throughout our buildings, made by her daughter Evalina. Recently, however, more personal memories of Mrs. Kremer have been made available even to those of us who never had the pleasure of meeting her.

Celebrating Mrs. Kremer

In collaboration with Evalina Kremer Settle, Deirdre A. Scaggs of the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center has recently published Simplicity and Excellence: Elizabeth Kremer from Beaten Biscuits to Shaker Lemon Pie. This book—half biography, half cookbook—tells the story of Mrs. Kremer’s life through her culinary journey, from her childhood in Cynthiana to her nineteen years here at Pleasant Hill. It’s a remarkable book, suffused with memories of every sense—the clicking of heels, the taste of pastry, even the feel of a butterball in the palm of your hand.

For those who want to experience Mrs. Kremer’s story in a more tangible way, please consider joining us on June 29^th for our newest Fresh Food Adventure: A Step Back in Time. In celebration of the release of Simplicity and Excellence, Trustees’ Table Chef Amber Hokams will create a multi-course dining experience in honor of Mrs. Kremer and her contributions to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. The evening will also feature a meet-and-greet with author Deirdre A. Scaggs.

Though thirty-eight years have passed since Elizabeth Kremer left the Trustees’ Table for the last time, we at Pleasant Hill are eternally grateful for her many years of constant dedication, creativity, and most importantly, hospitality. We strive to do her proud.

Simplicity and Excellence is available for purchase here, as well as in The Shops. Tickets for the Fresh Food Adventure: A Step Back in Time can be purchased here.