Shaker Centre Family Dwelling : Harrodsburg, Kentucky : 1824-1834

Patrick Lee Lucas

Shaker Centre Family Dwelling : Harrodsburg, Kentucky : 1824-1834

Contributed by Alex Adams

The front facade of the two-story building with two front doors and two windows left and right of each door. A chimney caps the composition at the left and right with a dormer set asymmetrically beyond the roof balustrade. A white picket fence with gate openings sits in from of the building containing a manicured green lawn. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Principles + Elements

When the Family Dwelling was designed there was a strong emphasis on balance. Both the outside and interior were constructed to display the use of split symmetry in their design. Lines are also incorporated throughout the building as the walls are separated into three sections by the blue stripes on the walls. The Dwelling was built before the use of electricity. To bring in light a numerous amount of window were used. The Shakers also built pegs into their walls making it easy to place candles anywhere in the house.

Dark blue trim outlines the floor, a chair rail, and a hanging rail in a central circulation space. Four rocking chairs perch along the passage at the end of which are two framed openings. The stair cases rise left and right of the passage to the lower and upper floors. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Connections

The Shaker Village was a community based on self-sufficient living and religious practices. The Shaker Centre Family Dwelling was constructed using the natural resourses found from the environment around them. By using wood and stone recovered from the property the structure has a homogeneous connection to the land it occupies.

Blue and red painted trim and furniture stand in stark contrast to the white walls of this dining hall interior. Two large columns support the open space structurally in its center. An arch topped interior door opening provides access to a transverse hall outside the space. Two multipaned windows visually connect the interior to the outdoors. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Materials

The family dwelling was one of three dwellings designed by Micajah Burnett who was a Shaker convert. The outer structure is made of limestone blocks that the shakers quarried out of the Kentucky River palisades that connect to the eastern part of the property. The inner walls of the dwelling are Lime plaster coted in a white lime wash. The Shakers were known for there exceptional woodworking craftsmanship and this can be seen throughout the dwelling specifically in the staircase and furnishings.

Multi-drawer built-in dressers, stained red, line three sides of a finished attic space. White plaster walls starkly contrast with dark blue trim upon some of which are a series of pegs. A skylight over the space provides the means for light to enter the space. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Light + Color

Natural light was an important resource for the Family Dwelling. To increase the amount of light coming into the building each room was made to have two large windows each. To maximize the light coming into the dwelling the walls were lime washed white to increase the interiors brightness. To accent the bright walls the trim and peg rails were painted blue giving the interior a clean pleasant feeling.

Dark green shutters provide a contrast to the light grey stone blocks and the white trim of the Centre Family Dwelling. The large front block of the building telescopes back to a wing longer than it's width. A number of chimneys punctuate the composition. The dwelling sits within a highly manicured lawn. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Experience

The Centre Family Dwelling House at the time of its construction was the second largest stone building in Kentucky only smaller than the capital building. Sitting at 24950 square feet, it was equipped to house 80 people at once. The structure was built 3 stories high and contains 14 bedrooms and 6 kitchens and an additional cellar.

Plain wood trim and built in cabinets along with benches that provide ample seating for this room of gathering. A black metal stove serves as the heat source. A broom, chair, and hat are hung on the pegs on a piece of trim that lines up with the top of the door opening. — “Meeting room inside the Brick Dwelling building, where residents were segregated by sex, at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, established in 1791” by Carol M. Highsmith

Technology

The Shakers unlike the Amish were fans of technology and took any opportunity to incorporate or modify new inventions. The “super-heater” or “double-decker,” wood stove was a modified cast iron stove that increased heat output by increasing the stoves surface area. By transferring the flue gases into a seconded chamber more heat would transfer into the room before escaping out of the chimney.

A view of the attic space that includes the staircases that rise to this level, showing the inter-relation of the volumes. Dark blue spindles and a plain wood rail form the stair rail system. Light sweeps in from two skylights, emphasizing the sharp contrast between wall surface and trim. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Finishes

The Shakers were a community that worked together to live Self-Sufficiently. This is reflected in the materials they used to finish the Family Dwelling. The inner walls were coated in lime wash that made them a bright white. Woodwork like the floors, furniture, and baseboards were all stained natural shades of red or yellow. Very little paint was used by the Shakers as they only used blue paint for the peg rails, doorway and door trim.

Clothing hangs from pegs as do museum panels to explain what Shakers wore in everyday life. Two beds, a table, and a sideboard stand as examples of Shaker craft in this room setting. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Furnishings

All of the Shakers living quarters were filled with there hand made wooden furniture. While the shakers were known for their wood craft most of what they made for themselves was simple in design. Notably the chairs they made were built light and designed to be hung from pegs in the walls so that cleaning the dwelling was easier.

One of the rooms in the Centre Family Dwelling sued for display of three-dimensional objects produced by the Shakers -- chairs, boxes, jars, and tools. These artifacts are placed in vitrines, along with interpretive materials and books. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Telling Stories

The Shaker Centre Family Dwelling is one of 34 strictures that make up the Pleasant Hill Village. Occupying 3000 acres it is the largest National Historic Landmark in Kentucky. In 1910, the village ceased to be an active religious society and the land was deeded to a local merchant under the agreement that he would take care of the property and the remaining Shakers. The landmark now represents and preserves the Shakers practice of ingenuity, a strong community, sustainable living, and most importantly equality.

One of the rooms in the Centre Family Dwelling used for museum interpretation. Text and image panels hang from the peg system in the space. — Adams, Alex. “Shaker Centre Family Dwelling,” *Personal Collection*, 26 Apr. 2024.

Theories

The purpose of the Shaker Centre Family Dwelling was to facilitate the religiose beliefs of the Shakers. Men and women while considered equal were to live their lives relatively separate from one another. This belief is the foundation of the buildings mirrored design. Both genders had individual doors and halls for traversing the dwellings interior in order to maintain their separation