A Shaker Christmas
Pleasant Hill offers a quiet alternative to modern-day festivities

"Shakers believed that the most beautiful instrument was the God-given one…the voice,” says Donna Phillips.

Her own is an exquisite example. As director of the music program at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill near Harrodsburg, the University of Kentucky grad sometimes presents the seasonal daily a capella music, selections from more than 20,000 Shaker-written hymns.

Dressed in the typical Shaker attire of a delicate lace cap and a wide Bertha collar atop a long, plain black cotton dress, Donna enunciates clearly. “Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free….”

Her rich contralto fills the room with such lush sound that when she stops, the air in the 1820 Meeting House continues to ring. Spellbound, visitors line wooden benches, the only furniture in a room stark with ordinary cream-colored walls trimmed in Shaker blue and maroon. The Meeting House once served as the spiritual center for the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing – known to outsiders as Shakers. Here, they held worship services that included the shaking, whirling dances that resulted in their name. In this order, no one was to be elevated above anyone else.

From its inception in New York State in the late 1700s, the Shaker order grew into America’s largest and best-known communal society and became a fascination to “the world,” the term they used for everyone who wasn’t a member – and with reason. They practiced celibacy and forbade co-habitation of men and women, living together instead as brothers and sisters in a highly structured, utopian social order that was known for being practical, innovative and peaceful.

In addition to believing in equality of race and sex and in freedom from prejudice, they invented dozens of labor-saving methods and devices, such as the flat broom, circular saw, commercial-size washing machine and apple peeler. They crossbred livestock, produced patented medicinal, packaged seeds and contrived a municipal water system. Union leanings did not prevent the frugal, agrarian sect from feeding both Yankee and Confederate troops during the Civil War from their vast stores of food. Astute merchants who dedicated themselves to “the Lord’s work,” the Shakers sold produce and handmade wares all along the Mississippi River and thrived financially.

“For people who avoided contact with the outside world,” mused Diana Ratliff, the attraction’s marketing and public relations director, “they were very savvy about dealing with them.”

Conceived in 1805, the community became the country’s third largest at its mid-18th century height, with some 300 members and 257 buildings. But a lack of new converts drastically reduced the population, and in 1910, the village closed it doors.

Thanks to the 1961 establishment of Shakertown at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, Inc., a nonprofit, educational corporation, and the continuing efforts of numerous Kentucky visionaries, this 2,800-acre National Historic Landmark property is now the largest of all restored Shaker communities, with 34 original structures. Fourteen of those boast overnight accommodations, complete with Shaker reproduction furniture.

With the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, this treasure of historic preservation is open year- round and is known for its tours led by well-versed, costumed guides; its demonstrations of traditional crafts and farming methods; a store filled with to the rafters with gorgeous handcrafts; and its Trustees’ Office restaurant, where heavenly Kentucky food fills the groaning board.

Though 100,000 visitors drop in annually, winter is rarely crowded and affords a welcome respite from pre-Christmas weeks of bustling holiday hoo-rah. During the quiet week before New Year’s, from December 26 through 31, Pleasant Hill offers “The Simple Gifts of Christmas,” when guided tours focus on Shaker life and Christmas customs.

During the December, music reverberates from the 1820 Meeting House and “The Shakers,” an in-depth film narrated by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, runs daily.

You can grab your boots, your saddle or your bike, because come wintertime, 25 miles of Shaker Village trails for day hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders turn private. Equine guests and their riders have full use of a 20-stall barn and heated tackroom, and a “Bed and Bridle” package has accommodations for both.

Plan a trip in the wintry present back into the glorious past at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill’s award-winning Web site, www.shakervillageky.org or call (800) 734-5611.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

Back to Tourism Index

Back to December Issue

Copyright 1996-2005, by Kentucky Business Online.  All rights reserved.

Editorial content is copyright 2005, Lane Communications Group
All editorial material is fully protected and must not be reproduced in any manner without prior permission.

The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.