community

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!

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.’”

Hidden Harvest

Billy Rankin

J. Michael Moore, Farm Manager

As you drive the countryside and croplands of Kentucky, there’s something new appearing on the landscape – industrial hemp. While for many Kentuckians this may seem like a new development in agriculture, hemp was once an important cash crop for the Commonwealth and has a long history of being grown for its valuable fiber.

1920. Cutting hemp near Wyandotte, KY. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

The Pleasant Hill Shakers built their first hemp mill in 1811, just five years after the community formally organized. The Shakers would have relied on hemp as a resource to support many of their industries, as seen in the hemp twine used to bind their famous Shaker Brooms. The Shakers of Pleasant Hill were famous for their trade, and hemp rope would have been used to strap down cargo on flat-bottom boats that traveled along the river banks of Kentucky River and beyond. Indoors, the Shakers even relied on hemp cord to suspend the mattresses on their beds!

Records show that in 1883 the Pleasant Hill Shakers sold 40,000 lbs. of hemp (for just $2,000!)

1920. Hemp in shocks, in a large Kentucky hemp field, near Wyandotte.
Courtesy of Library of Congress

Hemp has deep roots in the history of our state, and of the Kentucky Shakers. This summer, we have an opportunity to bring that history back to life.

In December 2018, Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which included legislation that removed hemp from the list of controlled substances, legalizing the crop nationwide. After nearly 50 years of prohibition, farmers are now free to grow hemp once again.

A few details you should know as we discuss hemp:

  • With less than 0.3% THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol), the intoxicating component of marijuana, hemp can’t get you “high,” but it can get you healthy.
  • The hemp seed is considered a “super-food”, packed full of many nutrients and minerals needed by the human body.
  • Hemp fiber can be used to make thousands of sustainable products, from building materials to natural fabrics, that are less toxic and better for the Earth.
  • Hemp flower produces high amounts of cannabinoids, with therapeutic benefits.

This year, hemp will return to Shaker Village for the first time since the 19th century, as part of the Kentucky Hemp Program. We’re excited to feature hemp as part of our “Kentucky Cash Crop Garden” which will highlight crops like Sorghum, Industrial Hemp and Burley Tobacco.

Guests can learn about hemp, and other Kentucky cash crops, during our $5 after 5pm program: Hidden Harvest: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Hemp at Pleasant Hill which runs from June through August, every Friday and Saturday evening at 5:30 PM.

Hemp History Week is June 3-9, 2019

Shaker Village joins more than 20 other historic sites and locations across the Bluegrass featured on the Heritage Hemp Trail, a journey through the Kentucky hemplands.

The trail is an initiative of the Kentucky Hempsters, the Kentucky Hemp Heritage Alliance and its affiliates across the state dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the state’s rich hemp history. Including the Farmington Historic Plantation in Louisville, Hopemont, The Hunt-Morgan House in Lexington and others, the Heritage Hemp Trail highlights the pioneers, places, and pieces of hemp history that build the foundation for the crop’s revival.

We hope you will join us this summer to learn about the fascinating history, and important future, of hemp in Kentucky!

Seeing Double

Billy Rankin

Aaron Genton, Collections Manager

One day earlier this week, I had a chance to see all of the Pleasant Hill stereographs that we have in our collection. This form of photography was popular from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries, during which time millions of stereoscopic views were produced for popular consumption. Visually, they are pretty cool, and I wanted to take this chance to share a few of them.

Stereoscopic photography recreates the illusion of depth by utilizing the binocularity of human vision. Because our two eyes are set apart, each eye sees the world from a slightly different angle. Our brains combine these two different eye-images into one, a phenomenon that enables us to “see,” ever so slightly, around the sides of objects, providing spatial depth and dimension.

Stock image – not part of the SVPH collection.

Stereoscopic views, or stereographs, consist of two nearly twin photographs – one for the left eye, one for the right. Viewing the side-by-side images through a special lens arrangement called a stereoscope helps our brains combine the two flat images and “see” the illusion of objects in spatial depth.

In other words, when viewed through a stereoscope, you were seeing a 3-D image!
Learn more about stereoscopic views..

In 1859, the vivid experience of viewing these photos was described this way:

The first effect of looking at a good photograph through the stereoscope is a surprise such as no painting ever produced. The mind feels its way into the very depths of the picture. The scraggy branches of a tree in the foreground run out as if they would scratch our eyes out. The elbow of a figure stands forth so as to make us almost uncomfortable. Then there is such a frightful amount of detail, that we have the same sense of infinite complexity which Nature gives us. A painter shows us masses; the stereoscopic figure spares us nothing… Learn more about this quote…

This became a common form of home entertainment – rather than watching TV at home every night, imagine settling in with your stereoscope and a stack of stereographs! They were affordable, and widely available, which gave almost everyone an opportunity to see things through their stereoscope that they might never see in person. Perhaps many people, when viewing the images in this post, were getting their first look at Pleasant Hill. They might’ve read about it, or even seen a drawing. But this was possibly their first, maybe only, time to see this very special and unique place.

I wonder what their impressions would have been?