More Ground-Shaking News from Shaker Village
It has been just a little over a week since Shaker Village received news of their $500,000 grant from the National Park Service Save America’s Treasures program for the Shaker Great Barn. The Save America’s Treasures grant requires a 1:1 match. Shaker leader Brother Arnold Hadd and Director Michael Graham announced today that they have received the required $500,000 match from the trustees of a single, anonymous charitable fund. The $1 million restoration of the Shakers’ Great Barn will commence in the spring of 2023.
In 2021, the trustees of the same charitable fund provided the Shakers with $330,000 to remove and restore the original slate roof of their massive 1883 brick Dwelling House, designed by famed Portland architect Francis Fassett. The trustees were impressed with the caliber of historic preservation performed by Maine’s Heritage Company and Preservation Timber Framing, and directed by Hadd and Graham. When they learned of the Save America’s Treasures Grant, they jumped on the opportunity to provide matching funds to restore the Shakers’ Great Barn.
Graham said, “It’s absolutely a dream coming true. While these structures are monuments to Shaker culture and history, they are also irreplaceable. Without immediate interventions, the Dwelling House, the Yellow Garage, and the Great Barn were each facing imminent failure and immeasurable risk to life and property. The recent Save America’s Treasures Grant combined with other donations have eliminated risks to those buildings. Now, the Shakers and everyone else can rest a bit easier knowing that some of the most important parts of Shaker Village will be safe, secure, and usable for another century or more.”
Brother Arnold added, “We’ve always done everything possible to be good stewards of this place. We have always taken care of our home, but now we need help, more help than ever before, so that this place continues to be a blessing to future generations of Shakers and seekers of all kinds. These grants and contributions will make that all possible.”
In a little over a year’s time, Brother Arnold, Michael Graham, the Shaker Village staff, and a team of supporters, architects, consultants, and contractors have raised $1.42 Million from competitive grants and private funds for the Dwelling House roof, the 1910 Yellow Garage, and now the 150’ megastructure Shaker Great Barn.
The Dwelling House roof is complete. Repairs to the historic 1910 Yellow Garage will be complete in a matter of weeks. Repairs on the Great Barn will commence in the spring of 2023 and will be complete in 2025.
And more help is on the way for another unique building at Shaker Village.
Ongoing fundraising efforts will be focused upon the Shaker Herb House. The 18th century structure stands derelict behind the brick Dwelling House as the sole remaining herb house representing the Shakers’ pioneering achievements to herbal medicine in American history. Backed by a $750,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Brother Arnold and Graham need to raise $3.2 million to rehabilitate the 8,000 square foot building into the headquarters of the Shaker Herb business and traditional arts studio classrooms. The Herb House will become Shaker Village’s first year-round, educational, cultural center and will sustain multi-generational community relationships.
The Herb House fundraiser was recently announced to the Friends of the Shakers, a membership-based support group with more than 600 households nationally and internationally. In less than 2 months, members of this group have contributed nearly $400,000 to the Herb House project with new donations arriving each day.
Graham said, “When Shaker Village was built 200 years ago, it was designed to serve the Shakers exclusively. Exclusivity has changed. For more than 50 years, the Shakers have opening their doors wider and wider to audiences and seekers of all kinds. It has become a great gathering place of learning, enrichment, and growth. We’re being called as friends, admirers, and advocates to give back to the Shakers, who have given this nation and us so much. The time is now to preserve this place for all time and continue build a blended community at Shaker Village where Shakers and non-Shakers learn and experience, side by side. Perhaps more than ever before, the world needs Shaker Village and its many examples of kindness, love, and simplicity.”
The Shaker Great Barn is being supported in part by a Save America’s Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior.
On April 13, 2022 the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that it recommended a $750,000 Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant to the Shaker Herb House & Traditional Arts Center.
Graham said, “When Shaker Village was built 200 years ago, it was designed to serve the Shakers exclusively. Exclusivity has changed. For more than 50 years, the Shakers have opening their doors wider and wider to audiences and seekers of all kinds. It has become a great gathering place of learning, enrichment, and growth. We’re being called as friends, admirers, and advocates to give back to the Shakers, who have given this nation and us so much. The time is now to preserve this place for all time and continue build a blended community at Shaker Village where Shakers and non-Shakers learn and experience, side by side. Perhaps more than ever before, the world needs Shaker Village and its many examples of kindness, love, and simplicity.”
The Shaker Great Barn is being supported in part by a Save America’s Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior.
On April 13, 2022 the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that it recommended a $750,000 Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant to the Shaker Herb House & Traditional Arts Center.
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