Re-treat Yourself!

Billy Rankin

(or, why you should stop meeting in boring locations and host your next company retreat @ Shaker Village!)

Sandra Wolcott, Group Sales Manager

I’ve had some time to think about what type of informative blog I could share with you all, and hopefully one that doesn’t seem like a pain to read all of the way through! (Is it too late to turn this into a short podcast?)

So let’s dive right in! I joined the Shaker Village team over a year ago as a Sales Manager and honestly, I keep learning new things about the Shakers and this village every day. It’s pretty rare to have something so unique to offer companies, and many of our visitors have become like a second family to me.

I even get to hang out with ducks, cows, horses and goats twice a week, and I feel like you should have that opportunity as well!

So with that in mind… let’s think about three things to ask yourself before you plan your next company retreat:

  1. Is there a restaurant that provides a private room and serves fresh local ingredients?
  2. What about comfortable meeting spaces that encourages brainstorming, but also gives you some elbowroom?
  3. Would you like an experience that leaves you feeling refreshed?

I have been in Hospitality for almost 10 years and I always ask myself these questions to find out if my venue will hold my attention, or more specifically, be worth the cost.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, or as some of you have known it, “Shakertown”, can really be a venue for any type of event (because Hospitality is our jam!)

Now, in Kentucky we have this wonderful landscape to play in. Rolling hills with endless views (also endless bourbon options). Not only that but we have all of this rich history right in our own backyard.

For example…

This building, the West Lot Dwelling, is almost 200 years old and over-looks miles of equestrian trails.

You could meet in an office building made of glass with a city view, or in a row of buildings that overlook a busy road in town, but here at Shaker Village…you get this!

Boomer (the cat) was actually my first tour guide when I joined the team (and my first work friend)! He walked with me to each building until he felt like I was comfortable enough to take it from there. Mostly you’ll find him sleeping in a window or sunbathing on a patch of grass.

My love of Boomer is distracting me!

Let’s get back to showing you some more of our meeting rooms!

Now this building used to be a Shaker wash house. (Give me an excel spreadsheet and some pie charts before manually wringing out clothes any day!) There is even a breakout room upstairs, easy access to a large parking lot, and it is next to buildings with overnight guest rooms.

Shaker Village also has 72 guest rooms to choose from, and each one has its own unique style.

I also have to show you the Cellar in the West Family Dwelling! It has a bar built in, which is perfect for a banquet. There is also a small meeting room on the second floor.

I did save our largest rent-able meeting space for last. The 1820 Meeting House can accommodate up to 100 people! It is also centrally located off the turnpike and used for several of our daily programs. (And, we won’t make you sit on the benches for your meeting. Promise.)

There can be multiple rental options for a retreat here at Shaker Village. Let’s not forget, we also have 3,000 acres to play in. We can customize and tailor each individual group experience. All you have to do is ask!

We have facilitators available for team building and strategic planning. A/V equipment is also available for your convenience, and indoor/outdoor back-up plans are prepared for any weather situation.

We offer catering through our restaurant, and you’ll be amazed at what Chef Amber Hokams can do with fresh ingredients from the garden, and how flexible she can be with dietary restrictions.

So why should you go to a corporate brand when you can actively contribute to a non-profit that keeps history alive?

You will have an experience to always remember here at Shaker Village, and if it isn’t the cows, unique meeting rooms and guest rooms, scenic views, mouthwatering food, or Boomer the Cat, then I don’t know how else to get you here….

Maybe The Dixie Belle! It holds up to 115 passengers and cruises the Kentucky River from Shaker Landing. You can even rent the entire boat and add catering!

The Shakers have a saying that I stand by, in every way.

“We make you kindly welcome.”

I look forward to hearing from you soon! Also, not too bad for my first blog, right?  Maybe I should have added the full-grown ducks…they waddle like penguins around the Village. Next time?

Click here to learn more about hosting your meeting or retreat at Shaker Village!

Happy Hammering!

Billy Rankin

Preservation Projects for the Summer of 2019

William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources

This is an exciting time, and we wanted to post an update on several on-going and upcoming projects you may see during visits to the Village over the summer and into the fall!

For starters, we re-opened the 1834 Centre Family Dwelling this spring after a year-and-a-half of work! (There are several prior blog posts about this project, if you’d like to learn more!)

Work is already underway on several of our other historic buildings. So far this year we have re-roofed the 1811 Old Stone Shop, and made repairs to the Old Ministries Shop and Cooper’s Shops.

Roofing underway on the 1811 Old Stone Shop.
Roofing completed on the 1811 Old Stone Shop.
Threshold on 1813 Old Ministry’s Shop before repair.
Threshold on 1813 Old Ministry’s Shop after repair.

Last summer we began work on the 1833 Water House. The first phase of this project completed a major structural repair to the front (south) wall of the building. This summer we will complete the preservation work on this building including repairs to the roof framing, siding, windows, a new shake roof and a fresh coat of paint. We are re-roofing and painting the nearby Brethren’s Bath House which will complete work on structures adjacent to the Centre Family Dwelling.

1833 Water House during recent preservation efforts.
1860 Brethren’s Bathhouse roof repair in progress.

In other work, we will also be installing a new roof on the 1821 Ministry’s Shop. This project will begin the preservation work on this building, and we intend to also make repairs to the exterior of the building and to repaint it prior to winter. We will begin to repair and repaint all of the windows, exterior doors, and exterior trim of the East Family Dwelling. This is a large project and plan to complete late in the fall, or possibly next spring if the weather cooperates.

Our work at Shaker Village is never truly finished. Use, time and the elements take a toll on our buildings and it is our duty to maintain them for future generations. You can help by making donations, and/or joining us on an upcoming volunteer day!

Click here to learn more about how to support our efforts!

Milkweed and Monarchs – Oh My!

Billy Rankin

Ben Leffew, Preserve Manager
Laura Baird, Assistant Preserve Manager

Monarch butterfly in the Shaker Village Preserve

Entering the summer months marks not only a transition in the seasons on the calendar, but also a transition in the species of blooming plants which act as sources of nectar, pollen, and sites for insects to lay eggs.

Spring forest wildflowers offer a food source for pollinators as early as February, when they can take advantage of sunlight hitting the forest floor before the trees start to shade the understory. As spring ends, most forest plants have finished blooming and the show picks up out in the prairies, where wildflowers can thrive throughout the warm months without having to compete for light with large trees.

Of the many diverse, vibrant wildflowers of summer, milkweed stands out from the rest as both an excellent nectar source, providing liquid energy for wide variety of insect species, as well as being the only plants monarch butterflies lay their eggs on.

Five species of milkweed have been confirmed in The Preserve at Shaker Village: common (Asclepias syriaca), butterfly (Asclepias tuberosa), green (Asclepias viridis), swamp (Asclepias incarnate), and four-leafed (Asclepias quadrifolia). Not surprisingly, common milkweed is the most abundant on the property as it is large, extremely tough, spreads itself easily and responds well to our prescribed fire regime.

Pipevine swallowtail on butterfly milkweed

The relationship between monarchs and milkweeds is one of the most famous examples of specialization in the insect world, and dates back millennia. Milkweeds produce a thick, sticky, toxic sap reminiscent of white latex, and have small hairs on the leaves to deter insects from taking a bite. Despite these physical and chemical defenses, several insects have evolved the ability to not only consume milkweed, but consume it exclusively. Monarchs are the most famous of these, requiring milkweed to lay their eggs.

Swamp milkweed

If it seems like monarch butterflies are getting a lot of attention these days, it’s for good reason. Monarchs have become an ambassador species for both large-scale prairie habitat restoration and small, backyard pollinator gardens and waystations. Providing good, milkweed-rich habitat for monarchs also benefits hundreds of other insect species that thrive in the prairie and in turn feed our many birds.

The Preserve at Shaker Village has miles of trails crossing through native prairies for you to explore! If you would like to learn more about monarch butterflies first-hand, you might enjoy our Monarch Butterfly Tagging workshop in September!

Old Buildings, New Tricks

Billy Rankin

Sustainability through Geothermal Systems

William Updike, Vice President of Natural and Cultural Resources

Shaker Village is on a mission to be good stewards of our resources. One way we do this is through the Geothermal Heating and Air Conditioning systems in the East Family Dwelling, West Lot Dwelling, Centre Family Dwelling and Meeting House.

Geothermal supports our stewardship in two ways.

First, geothermal heat pump systems are more than three times as efficient as the most economical furnace. Instead of burning a combustible fuel to create heat, a ground-source system uses the earth’s energy as the heat source. Geothermal systems provide three to four units of energy for every
one unit used to power the system’s compressor, fan and water pump. The U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency identify geothermal as having the lowest environmental impact of all heating systems.

Secondly, geothermal systems are able to reach very high efficiencies. For example, geothermal heat pump can be up to 600% efficient on the
coldest days of the year—a normal air source heat pump will only be 175-200% efficient on cool days—meaning the geothermal system is using far less electricity than a comparable heat pump, furnace or air conditioner. Thus, this installation will help us save financial resources in the long run
on our purchase of electricity.

Our goal is to prolong the lives of these buildings for the next generation to enjoy. Guests now have a better experience inside the buildings during hot or cold days—regulating the temperature and humidity inside the building help us preserve the buildings and allow us to display furniture and
textiles that are too fragile for non-climate controlled spaces.

I hope you enjoy these images of the geothermal installation during the recent preservation of the 1824 Centre Family Dwelling!

October 2017. Laying out the well field.
October 2017. Drilling wells and placing pipes.
November 2017. Connecting the geothermal piping to the Centre Family Dwelling.
May 2019. Completed geothermal well field for the Centre Family Dwelling.

Preservation work is never completed! Ongoing repair, maintenance and upkeep is critical for the sustainability of our historic village. Thank you to everyone who has visited, donated and contributed to make projects like this possible!

In Remembrance

Billy Rankin

Pleasant Hill bears witness to the Civil War

Jacob Glover, PhD, Program Manager

“Such a day as this has never been witnessed on Pleasant Hill before and God grant that it never may again.”

Written by the East Family Deaconness on October 11, 1862, this single line of text reveals much about the Shakers’ complicated relationship with the Civil War, and the events at Pleasant Hill during the campaigns that led to the Battle of Perryville.

Battle of Perryville, as depicted by Harper’s Weekly.

As a pacifist sect, the Pleasant Hill Shakers were extremely distressed by the reports of skirmishes and battles that continued to filter into their community throughout 1861 and 1862, as the Civil War intensified. By October 1862, then, the Shakers would have been well-accustomed to reading about the horrors of war. Seeing it in their front yard, however, was something entirely different:

“Strange events! Whoever would have thought that this secluded and sacred spot of truly Pleasant Hill, would ever have been surrounded by the embattled legions within hearing distance in almost every direction….How awful to think of a wicked and bloody battle occurring in the midst of Zion on earth!”

This “invasion” of the Shaker utopia, by both the Union and Confederate armies for several weeks in the fall of 1862, quite obviously, struck at the community’s religious foundations and caused a great deal of consternation among the population. The scenes described by the East Family Deaconness bordered on the apocalyptic, and, at times, the Shakers wrote as if the soldiers who “surrounded our wells like the locusts of Egypt” and “thronged our kitchen doors and windows begging for bread like hungry wolves” would overwhelm them.

The Company Muster Roll of Confederate Soldier William Outlaw, who was ill and treated by the Pleasant Hill Shakers prior to the Battle of Perryville. Outlaw never recovered, and was buried in the Shaker graveyard.
Courtesy of Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site.

And yet, despite their absolute rejection of the validity of warfare, the Shakers could not turn a blind eye to the very real human suffering present at Pleasant Hill. “We nearly emptied our kitchens of their contents,” the Shakers commented, “…and then when our stores were exhausted, we were obliged to drive them from our doors while they were begging for food. Heart rending scene!”

The generosity of the Shakers must have been noteworthy and appreciated by the hungry soldiers, as the Shakers reported that none of their possessions or property had been confiscated by either army.

Both before and after the Battle of Perryville, the Shakers supported ailing and wounded soldiers by treating them at Pleasant Hill and sending medical supplies to nearby Harrodsburg. By early November 1862, there were still 600 to 700 soldiers in the town who were too sick or injured to rejoin their units.

While the Civil War, and the events surrounding the Battle of Perryville, had indeed shaken the community to it’s core, the East Family Deaconness refused to concede defeat in the Shakers’ quest to establish their earthly utopia. That Pleasant Hill “should have escaped with comparatively so little damage, clearly implies…” she concluded, “there is still a spark of light, a remnant of faith, and a seed of truth, [and] ‘I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.’”