Shaker Museum At South Union

This was a interesting self guided tour of what’s left of the shaker town. It starts out with a video then walk through the buildings that were built during the 1800’s. The shakers where experts at everything they did. This museum has the largest collection of Shaker furniture in the world. The most most impressive building was the 4 story center house that has been mostly restored to original. They built the all brick building by hand including making their own bricks.
They present a lot of historical information about the shaker way of life.

There isn’t much here. Just 4 buildings or so. This is one of those places where you get out of if what you put into it. I came here to learn some history, and I felt satisfied when I left. But if you’re expecting to be entertained like you’re at Disney Land, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. It reminded me of Greenfield Village in Detroit, Michigan, with all the old buildings as if they had mysteriously appeared out of the 19^th century. There is a palpable peace that suffuses the area; it is more than a mere absence of noise or machinery. I took photos of everything I came across. I wish there were more. Sadly, when the Shakers died out and sold the place in the 1920s, the people who bought it did not respect them or their history. They razed most of the buildings to the ground and ground up the hundreds of lime stone grave markers into fertilizer for the crops, wiping out any knowledge of who is buried there, rather like the Jews experienced in Europe during WW II. The architecture that is left is profoundly simple yet elegant. I’m intrigued and want to learn more about these people. Like many historical places, you’ll get more out of it if you prepare by learning about these people first before visiting here. $ 8 will get you a movie in the visitors’ center, permission to roam the grounds, and entrance into the central building. I’d have mixed feelings about bringing children here; they won’t like it. But because my parents drug me through plenty of places like this, I now like them as an adult.