Hancock Shaker Village

The Shakers were members of a Protestant religious sect, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, who came to America from England in the eighteenth century under their leader Mother Ann Lee. They believed in equality, communal living, pacifism, hard work, and celibacy, and they gathered into self-sufficient communities where men and women lived and worshiped separately but as equals. Their name came from the trembling, dancing movements of their fervent worship.

Because they were celibate, the Shakers grew their communities through conversion and by taking in orphans, and over time their numbers dwindled, so that only a tiny remnant survives today. But in their heyday they built dozens of thriving villages across the country, and they left behind a legacy of design, craftsmanship, and invention out of all proportion to their numbers. Hancock was one of their major eastern communities, and its careful preservation keeps their extraordinary story alive.

The most famous building at Hancock is its Round Stone Barn, built in the early nineteenth century and unlike almost any other barn in America. Its circular design allowed a wagon to drive in at the upper level and unload hay into a central mow, from which the cattle ringing the ground floor could all be fed from the middle, a brilliantly efficient arrangement that let one worker do the labor of several.

The barn is a perfect emblem of the Shaker mind, which held that there was no separation between good work and worship, and that a thing well and honestly made was itself a kind of prayer. Its clean stone walls and clever plan have made it one of the most admired agricultural buildings in the country, and it remains the enduring symbol of the whole village.

The Shakers were famous makers, and their furniture, with its clean lines and complete lack of ornament, has become one of the most admired styles in American design, prized today for the very simplicity the Shakers valued as a spiritual virtue. At the village, craft demonstrations and preserved workshops show how they made their furniture, textiles, oval boxes, and other goods, and their inventiveness in tools and methods.

The village is also a working farm, with heritage-breed animals in the pastures and barns and gardens planted much as the Shakers grew them, for the community was renowned for its seeds and its agriculture. In spring the arrival of baby animals draws families year after year, and through the seasons the gardens, fields, and livestock keep the old rhythms of Shaker farm life visibly alive.

Hancock Shaker Village sits in the open, rolling country of the western Berkshires, just outside Pittsfield and close to the New York border. The setting of pastures and hills is much as the Shakers knew it, and it makes a peaceful counterpoint to the cultural bustle of the region's summer season.

The village makes a fine stop within the wider Berkshires, one of the great cultural landscapes of New England. The museums of Pittsfield, the summer concerts at Tanglewood near Lenox, the art at MASS MoCA in North Adams, and the grand house museums scattered through the hills are all within reach, so a visit to the Shakers pairs easily with the many other pleasures of the county.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.