Pleasant Hill Shaker Village

On our way to Louisville, we stopped at the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village, about 25 miles south of Lexington. Pleasant Hill was founded in 1805 after Shaker missionaries came to participate in camp meetings in Kentucky. At its height Pleasant Hill had 500 residents, divided into five families. The village lasted until 1910. Its downfall occurred from a combination of the Civil War and bad business decisions. During the Civil War, the Shakers were pacifists who opposed slavery. However, they were not attacked by either side. However, 10,000 troops passed through the Turnpike to the left on their way to and from battles, particularly the Perryville campaign in 1862. The Shakers fed the troops and treated the wounded, at great personal sacrifice. After the Civil War many converts came to Pleasant Hill, some because they were disabled and couldn't support their families, some widows with children, and some orphan children. As a result there were children in Pleasant Hill. Prior to the Civil War the Shakers had made and sold brooms, boxes, seeds and the first medicines available from a catalogue, mainly to southern markets. Those markets dried up after the war. That, combined with the industrial revolution which improved the lives of all people so that the relatively prosperous life represented in Pleasant Hill was no longer such an attraction, plus some bad business decision caused the abandonment of Pleasant Hill in 1910.



This is Centre Family House, home to 100 men and women who lived on separate sides of the house. They ate in the house, had an infirmary, and met for evening Meetings in an upstairs room. The building was designed by a man who also designed many of the other buildings in the village. He placed the buildings to take advantage of the Kentucky winds and ensured that every room had cross ventilation. There was a cupola that opened to let the hot air out. There was an infirmary, over the kitchen, to treat the ill.
One of the things that the Amish manufactured was brooms. This man still does so. The Shakers used to raise broom straw, though it is now imported from Mexico. In addition to making floor brooms (which last for decades), he makes turkey wing wisk brooms, pot scrubbers, cake testers, etc. He was a font of information. Among other things, there are about 190 employees.
This shows the dual stair cases in Centre Family House (used separately by men and women). One of the Shaker beliefs is that since man sinned they must be celebate. This photo also shows the lovely design of Centre House (arches and wood work).