Canterbury Shaker Village

National Historic Landmark; A Shaker Community Founded In 1792 Whose Last Resident Shaker Sister Died In 1992, Now A Museum Village Of About 25 Original Buildings On Some 700 Acres. · Canterbury, New Hampshire

A Shaker community founded in 1792 on a hilltop in rural Canterbury, north of Concord, and now a museum village of about 25 original buildings on some 700 acres of fields, woods and mill ponds. The Shakers, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, lived celibate lives in common, holding property together, treating women and men as spiritual equals and worshipping with song and dance. At its height in the mid-1800s the village held a few hundred members who farmed, ran mills, sold seeds, medicines and fine woodwork, and adopted any labour-saving idea that worked. With no children born into the faith, numbers dwindled, and the last resident Shaker sister here died in 1992. The site is a National Historic Landmark. White clapboard dwellings, the 1792 Meeting House, workshops and barns stand along a quiet road much as they did, and guides explain the furniture, the inventions and the rules of daily life. Behind the buildings, nature trails loop past the chain of ponds the Shakers dug to power their mills.

288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, New Hampshire, 03224, United States

The museum is seasonal. It typically opens roughly in May and runs to late October, daily or on most days of the week in summer and autumn, with daytime hours and the last guided tour well before closing (confirm days and times). From November to April the buildings are closed except for special events, which have included holiday programmes and winter walks (confirm). The nature trails may be walkable outside museum hours, but check before visiting, since parking and restrooms may be closed. The shop and cafe follow the museum's season and may keep shorter hours.

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