shaker village

2019 – A Year In Review

Billy Rankin

A quiet winter peace falls over Shaker Village this time of year. The bustle of the holidays is ending, and the promise of a new year is here. The administration and staff have spent the last few weeks busily celebrating the Holidays and making sure each guest has felt kindly welcome. The team has also started to think about plans and activities for next year, with words like “benchmarks,” “budgets” and “events” being spoken in meetings. But, every year around this time we stop to catch our breath. We pause from making plans, and reflect on the past year.

The Pleasant Hill Shakers were known for their innovative thinking and their ingenuity. Reflection goes hand-in-hand with innovation. The ability to reflect on everyday life, specific tasks, processes, activities and more, allows us to understand our blessings and see opportunities. As the staff pauses in reflection, we wanted to share some of the milestones from the Village this year.

The Historic Centre

The 1824-1834 Centre Family Dwelling preservation project came to completion earlier this year and the building reopened to the public after being closed since 2017. This project concluded the preservation of the “spiritual center” of Pleasant Hill.

  • 2016
  • 2019

We took care to provide loving attention to all 34 of our historic structures this year. Some of the more notable preservation projects in 2019 included new roofs, new siding, restored windows, repaired thresholds and more for the 1833 Water House, the 1860 Bath House, the 1821 Ministry’s Workshop, the 1811 Old Stone Shop and the 1824 Tanyard. Our visitors might not have noticed, but we upgraded sprinkler heads throughout several of our historic buildings this year as a preventative safeguard.

The site-wide interpretative planning process also concluded this year, providing us with a road-map to creating a cohesive and comprehensive guest experience. You’ll see the next step of this plan implemented in the early months of 2020 with the installation of 20 outdoor waystations across the 3,000 acre property. Our development staff also made significant steps towards securing funding for permanent exhibits that are part of this plan and vital to our mission.

If you are on our mailing list, you receive our quarterly mailing detailing our seasonal programming and signature events. Each day at Shaker Village is a different adventure. In 2019, we offered 35+ daily, seasonal programs, plus 41 specialty workshops and 9 major events. Those are just the experiences we planned in advanced! Several other opportunities came up throughout the year – like a trail bike ride event – that we hosted on site.

  • Historic Tours
  • Educational Programs

Our daily programs offer a unique and sometimes surprising interpretation of the Pleasant Hill Shakers. One of our most popular programs, Shaker Troublemakers, highlighted individual Pleasant Hill Shakers. You’ll see more individual stories included in the planned permanent exhibits.

The weather proved to be challenging during our signature events in 2019, but through the cold, the heat and the rain these events were attended by guests who left us with fantastic feedback. This feedback helps us to know that we are on track with our mission to inspire generations through discovery, and helps us see opportunities for growth, improvement and innovation.

The Farm

At the end of 2019, any visitor to The Farm will notice our “farmily” members are happy, healthy and more numerous than in past years. The growing herd of sheep and cattle represent the Shaker’s past and our organizations future as a leading educator and model for sustainable agriculture. Our farmer has named this herd at work our regenerative landscape crew! And, it may just be us, but can you really visit the Indian Runner Ducks in The Orchard and leave with a frown on your face? These quirky animals are great ambassadors for The Farm and one of the first things you notice when you arrive at the Welcome Center.

  • Indian Runner Ducks
  • The “farmily” keeps growing!

The farm includes over 150 garden beds in which our farmers use low to no-till practices, incorporate crop rotation and cover cropping, use a high diversity of crops, and have integrated livestock to contribute nutrients and minerals back into the soil. One of the biggest celebrations of 2019 is completing and receiving our USDA Organic Certification. This year we strategically supplied food items to The Trustees’ Table for a farm-to-table experience for our guests. We also donated over 300 pounds of produce to local organizations to help those in our community achieve food security!

The Preserve

On The Preserve, our naturalists have continued their efforts to promote a healthy restored native prairie and monitor the benefits to the native plant and animal species. While there are many cool things about The Preserve, perhaps the niftiest was discovered this year during our first survey in recent times of the bat population. We caught five different species of bats – including the Gray bat Myotis grisescens, a threatened species in Kentucky and an endangered species federally.

  • Bat surveys, July 2019
  • Prescribed fire, February 2019

In 2019, as in past years, we managed prescribed fire in The Preserve. While that might seem counterintuitive to land management practices and the promotion of a thriving habitat, fire is the most effective management tool we have. Plus, fire is a natural occurrence and has always been part of open herbaceous grasslands. This year, with the help of 32 trained crew members, over 450 acres of native prairie was burned.

Support from the Community

It has been a tremendously successful and fun year, and that’s because of you – our valued guest. This year, more visitors explored Shaker Village, dined at The Trustees’ Table, visited The Shops, stayed in The Inn, and donated time and money to support our nonprofit mission.

It takes a village to care for this National Historic Landmark. On that note, we are particularly pleased to have hosted two public Village-wide Volunteer Days, four public Volunteer Trail Days and many private group volunteer projects. Building a culture of philanthropy starts by engaging our biggest supporters – you – to give their time to preserving this powerful place.

  • Volunteer Day, November 2019
  • Corning volunteers, Summer 2019

We also met and exceeded a matching challenge from the Shaker Village Board of Trustees to raise $350,000 for the Annual Fund from new donors and from renewing donors who chose to increase their tax-deductible gift this year. Meeting this challenge was critical for the future of this site, and made some of the amazing things we have been reflecting on here possible.

So, next year, after this pause of reflection, when we talk about things like “benchmarks” and “budgets” it’s going to be with a new sense of excitement. Great things are happening at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. We can’t wait to share them with you!

Small Acts of Kindness

Billy Rankin

Melissa Donahoo, Development Coordinator

Guests attending Illuminated Evenings at Shaker Village may donate non-perishable food items or winter clothing in lieu of admission.

The Shakers sought to create ‘heaven on earth’ in the communities they developed, including here at Pleasant Hill. Founded in Manchester, England in the mid-1700s, this Christian society sought freedom in the New World to practice their faith, which included communal living and the belief that men, women and all races were created equal. The Shaker story is one of inclusion and equality that is not only relevant today, but also very powerful, as we each seek to understand our own, local community’s place in this global world.

Throughout this past year, we have asked our community to support this nonprofit organization and National Historic Landmark by dining, shopping, staying, exploring, volunteering and donating. We have had a tremendously successful year largely thanks to you and the support we have received.

But we wouldn’t be good community members ourselves if we didn’t, in turn, support others. Below are a few examples of how Shaker Village has given back this year. We share these examples in the hope of inspiring others, whether individuals or organizations, to look within their own communities to identify needs and do what they can to help.

We support food security for local families.

  • Over 300 lbs. of produce grown at Shaker Village was donated to Grace Café, a pay-what-you-can restaurant in Danville, Kentucky.
  • 820 lbs. of venison harvested on The Preserve at Shaker Village was donated to Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry, and distributed to three local food banks.
  • 369 food items and 223 articles of clothing have been collected this month, in lieu of admission to evening programs, and donated to the Christian Life Center in Harrodsburg, Kentucky for local families in need.
Staff and volunteers at Grace Cafe receiving donated produce from the Shaker Village gardens.

We support other nonprofit organizations.

  • In 2019, we donated goods and services valued at nearly $20,000 to 179 local nonprofits, including churches and schools, to assist with fundraising for their own organizations.

Our staff regularly volunteer their time to support other community organizations.

  • Every year, Shaker Village staff support clean-up projects at Camp Horsin’ Around, a summer camp for children with medical and other special needs, through the Lean to Green program.
  • Maynard Crossland, CEO is a member of the Kentucky Heritage Council Advisory Board, supporting the preservation of historic places across Kentucky.
  • Bob Gigliotti, VP of Hospitality, serves as a member of the Mercer County/Harrodsburg Tourism Commission, supporting all businesses in Mercer County through marketing and promotional efforts.
  • Billy Rankin, VP of Public Programming & Organizational Strategy serves on the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce Board, as Harrodsburg’s 250th Anniversary Marketing Co-Chair, on the Mercer County Extension Office Council, and is active in the Kiwanis Club.
Shaker Village staff volunteered to clean camper cabins at Camp Horsin’ Around as part of the ‘Lean to Green’ program.

We are committed to inspiring generations through discovery.

  • 1,776 active and veteran military members received free admission to Shaker Village in 2019.
  • Over 600 Mercer County residents were granted free admission to Shaker Village and to ride the Dixie Belle riverboat as part of our annual ‘Mercer County Week.’
  • During the government shutdown at the beginning of the year, Shaker Village provided free admission for all government employees.
  • Recognizing that summer learning loss is a serious problem for students in our community, Shaker Village provided summer camp scholarships for 6 local, at-risk students.

As the Pleasant Hill Shakers routinely donated food and gave shelter to those in need, we are also proud to support our community, recognizing that we are all stronger when working together.

“…Prepared Herbs and Roots…”

Billy Rankin

Rebekah Roberts, Program Specialist

“A large business is done… in pressed and prepared herbs and roots, besides many tons in bulk…and many tons of extracts, both solids and fluids. The War makes great demand for all the articles. They sell in large quantities. We cannot prepare enough to meet the demand.” – Harvey L. Eads, South Union Shaker Village

Although perhaps not widely known, the Shakers were among the first group of Americans to begin selling herbs for medicinal purposes in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Shaker communities from the east coast to Kentucky produced a wide variety of medicinal products that went out in the world including medicines, salves, extracts and pressed herbs born from their “physic” gardens. Most Shakers followed the Thomsonian perspective regarding herbal medicines: they believed herbs could cure all ailments. Luckily for their economic fortunes, many Americans at the time believed the same!

At Pleasant Hill, the community produced several hundreds of pounds of herbs each year, and began to expand their garden plots to accommodate their growing industry in the 1840s. “Today we ploughed up a piece of meadow on the west side of the south shed for the purpose of removing the medical garden to that place. Same day ploughed up a piece of meadow, on the west side of the south street, twice as large, as we need more space. Medical garden by John Shain, length 28 feet by 11 feet.”

By the time of the Civil War, as the quote from Harvey Eads above indicates, the herbal industry was extremely important to the two Shaker communities in Kentucky (Pleasant Hill and South Union) and a booming business was to be had. Such success was widespread and shared by the Shaker communities along the east coast as well due in large part to the popularity of one particularly famous herbal remedy: Mother Seigel’s Syrup, also known as Shaker Extract of Roots. In fact, this remedy was probably the most widely distributed herbal medicine in the world during the last quarter of the nineteenth century!

Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup was a very popular remedy in the late 1800s.

Alongside their success in tying agricultural pursuits to the demands of the market, the Shakers also used herbs within their communities. At Pleasant Hill, Shaker Sisters and children would often take to the woods, seeking out medicinal plants that could be foraged, considering wild plants to be gifts from God. What sort of native medicinal plants did the Pleasant Hill Shakers forage? Their journals reference many: boneset, lobelia, hoarhound, elder flowers, and wild ginger, among others.

By the late-1870s, declining fortunes at Pleasant Hill led the Shakers to seek a financial panacea in the form of an herbal cure-all remedy that they purchased from a Shaker apostate and her husband. Titling this new substance The Shaker Elixir of Malt, the medicine was never a successful sell. Ultimately, the Pleasant Hill Shakers had to seek out additional sources of revenue to try and recover from the financial losses of the failed venture.

At Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill today, herbs are still a prominent feature in our agricultural pursuits. After preservation work was recently completed on the 1824 Centre Family Dwelling, we replanted our herb garden and divided it into beds that mimic how the Shakers would have organized their own herb beds. What do you think we grow in each bed? Well, some things you are going to have to come to Shaker Village and find out for yourself!

The newly replanted herb garden at Shaker Village, spring 2019.

Join us this winter for the daily program Shaker Herbs: A Winter Tea Tasting to discover more about the Shaker herb industry and enjoy warm herbal tea made from a traditional Shaker blend! Check the daily schedule for program times.

A Kentucky Treasure – Mrs. Milly Ann Stewart

Billy Rankin

Barry Stumbo, Chief Development Officer

Mrs. Milly Ann Stewart is a remarkable person, who has been a powerful and influential leader for historic preservation in Kentucky for over five decades. Mrs. Stewart was recently selected by the Kentucky Heritage Council for the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Award, Kentucky’s most distinguished celebration of historic preservation excellence.

Mrs. Stewart receives the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Award, with, (from l to r), Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Chair of the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Foundation Steve Collins, State Historic Preservation Officer Craig Potts, and friend and Secretary of the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Foundation Barbara Hulette.

During her acceptance speech at the award ceremony, Mrs. Stewart spoke passionately about many historic sites and projects she has supported over the years, and one of those projects is the Campaign for Shaker Village . Mrs. Stewart later remarked, “The reason I’m so impressed with Shaker Village is because it’s a major entity of our history. It was so important to the early settlers and the Shakers were so innovative, and their agricultural practices were ahead of their time.”

She added, “Their craftsmanship and furniture were outstanding and their work benefited the entire community. The whole village was remarkable for its time and expresses the way of life they lived which was so different from the fast-pace world today.”

Mrs. Stewart served on the Kentucky Heritage Council under Governor Julian Carroll and Governor John Y. Brown from 1975-83. During Governor Carroll’s administration she chaired the Mansion Restoration Committee, and in that role she raised the money necessary to refurbish the Governor’s Mansion at a time when the legislature chose not to fund the project. She went on to raise money for the restoration of Kentucky’s Old State Capitol as well as the state’s History Center and the Barstow House, next door. In Lexington she was a major supporter of Henry Clay Estate, Ashland, and the John Hunt Morgan House and Frankfort’s Liberty Hall. There are so many other preservation projects she has touched throughout the years that space doesn’t allow us to name them all!

Mrs. Milly Ann Stewart and her husband, Dr. John P. Stewart II.

Barbara Hulette, Mrs. Stewart’s longtime friend and fellow preservationist said, “Milly has made such a tremendous impact on historic preservation in Kentucky, and she does it quietly with style and grace. She doesn’t seek recognition for her accomplishments. She does it because she wants to preserve Kentucky’s rich heritage for generations to come.”

Mrs. Stewart was also responsible for getting the entire Stewart Home & School (formerly the historic Kentucky Military Institute) on the National Register of Historic Places. A fore runner of its time as a community and school for individuals with intellectual disabilities, the Stewart Home & School of Frankfort was established in 1893 by John Q. A. Stewart, M.D. and has been continuously operated by the Stewart family for over 125 years. For 58 years the late John P. Stewart II, M. D. led the school along with other members of the family, and dedicated son-in-law Barry Banker. The fifth generation of the Stewart family are very involved today with Mrs. Stewart’s son, John D. Stewart II, M. D., stepping into his father’s shoes and working alongside Barry Banker.

The Stewart family.

Mrs. Stewart has four children John, Jean Ann, Charles and Cathy. Cathy is a former Board of Trustee at Shaker Village. She also has seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Stewart recently said “Preserving this national treasure is so important for future generations. That’s why I feel so strongly about Shaker Village!”

Shaker Village and so many other organizations are grateful for what she has accomplished. She is truly a Kentucky treasure!

“…to be remembered as a chair…”

Billy Rankin

Jacob Glover, PhD., Program Manager

“…I almost expect to be remembered as a chair, or a table…”
– Shaker Sister Mildred Barker, Sabbathday Lake, Maine

Who are the Shakers? What was Pleasant Hill?

These two questions cut directly to the core of the educational mission of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. Deceptively simple upon first glance, they open the door to one of the most fascinating stories to emerge from the social, cultural and religious milieu of early 19th century America.

To put the matter simply, the Shakers were a dissenting religious group in 19th century England who migrated to America in 1774. With a devotion to physical, experiential worship and a strict adherence to celibacy, more than a few contemporary observers offered admonishment and predicted the group’s demise over the years. All such predictions, it should be noted, have thus far been wrong—as of this publication, the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, is still active!

For over 100 years, Shakers lived in union in Mercer County, Kentucky. In that time, over 2,000 individuals were part of this communal, utopian society.

Founded in 1806, Pleasant Hill was one of roughly two dozen intentional communities the Shakers established in the United States throughout the early 1800s. At Pleasant Hill, all covenant members chose to adopt the practice of celibacy, embrace gender and racial equality, live communally, and follow the leadership of community Ministers, Elders, and Eldresses as they advanced in their particular faith.

Reaching a height of nearly 500 members by the early 1820s, the community built impressive structures, established trade networks, and prospered economically due to the success of their agricultural operations. Although they declined in the later decades of the 19th century, Pleasant Hill Shakers lived in Mercer County, Kentucky until 1923.

Throughout the 20th century, however, the historical, religious and cultural aspects of Shakerism came to be overshadowed in broader American culture by the rise of the “Shaker” aesthetic—a focus on the simple, elegant designs of Shaker furniture and architecture. It was in the height of this frenzy that Sister Mildred Barker uttered the famous line in the 1980s that she would probably be remembered as nothing more than a piece of furniture.

Although the Shaker “moment” may not be as intense now as it was then, it is undeniable that the general perception of the Shakers and Pleasant Hill has been predominantly shaped by the Shaker aesthetic and an intense focus on craftsmanship and design.

Simple and efficient, yet elegant, the Shaker aesthetic became so popular during the 20th century that a narrow focus on furniture and architecture could, at times, obscure the astonishing stories of the community of Pleasant Hill and those who called it home.

While the attention to all things Shaker is welcome, the myopic focus on the Shaker aesthetic obscures the complex, varied, and ultimately triumphant human story at the heart of the Shaker legacy that is so incredibly relevant to our modern world.

So, again, we come to those two burning questions: Who are the Shakers? What was Pleasant Hill? These queries deserve more words than this blog post will permit, but it should be enough to note that any true answer would take us into the themes of family, devotion, religion, diversity, equality, creativity, and more—ideas to which everyone of us can relate.

I should be clear: the Shakers did not always live up to the ideals they strove to attain. At Pleasant Hill the community paid for enslaved labor, individual Shakers quarreled with one another, some stole meat from smokehouses, while one even left the community to become an armed bandit after the Civil War!

The last Shaker at Pleasant Hill, Sister Mary Settles, stands alone in a field. Mary’s life as an educator, community leader and proponent of women’s rights hints at the complex personal stories of individual Shakers that extended well beyond the society’s material culture.

So how do we remember the Shakers? What aspects of their lives, choices, and characters are most worthy of emulation? What can we as individuals and communities learn from the quest for perfect union and harmony? What is there for us to discover in their failures? Ultimately, these questions must be answered by everyone in their own time. It would be a shame, however, if all we remembered was a chair.

To take an in-depth look at Shaker history at Pleasant Hill, join us for an Historic Village Tour, running daily throughout the year. Check the Event Schedule for tour times!