Other People's Homes: Hancock Shaker Village

Nestled amongst the rural hill towns and working farmland of western Massachusetts, just a short drive out of upstate New York, sits one of the last preserved Shaker dwellings called Hancock Shaker Village. 

Established in 1790 and originally known as the ‘City of Peace’, the Hancock Shaker Village is a living history museum with 20 historic buildings, a working farm and over 22,000 authentic Shaker artefacts. Members of the Shaker community lived and worked here until 1960, at which point the last remaining residents handed the buildings, the farm and all of their contents over to a trust. This uninterrupted transition from living, working community to trust is most likely why the Hancock Shaker Village remains so remarkably well preserved.   

Today, its beautifully restored buildings, quaint working farm and tranquil, bucolic landscape attract curious visitors from around the world, intrigued by the Shakers’ unusual lifestyle, unwavering dedication to their values and enduring designs.  

I have written before (here and here) about my belief that it was the Shakers’ use of their values in guiding their impeccable craftsmanship that has led to their creations having such enduring appeal and outsized impact on the design world. Guided by honesty, purpose and dedication to their numerous crafts,their work and creations blended their spiritual values with a reverence for practical, everyday functionality.   

At the village, every path, every workshop, every carefully considered room embodies the values of a community that believed that even the smallest everyday tasks could become acts of devotion when carried out mindfully and with care. And I feel that it is this intentionality that continues to make the Shakers so endlessly fascinating.

While many people today admire their furniture for its sophisticated restraint and enduring, timeless appeal, their homes and creations were never designed according to an aesthetic movement. Instead, the beauty within their unintentional aesthetic emerged naturally from being organised around usefulness and deep dedication to the thoughtfulness of every small detail.      

For the Shakers, work was considered a form of worship. And because every task could carry deep, spiritual significance, it was carried out with devotion, precision and wholehearted attention. Their brooms, cupboards, chairs or dining tables were never merely household objects. They were opportunities to bring to life their values and exercise their devotion through work.

Nothing was created out of vanity, and yet neither was beauty rejected. Instead, beauty was understood as the natural consequence of something being made exceptionally well. Clean lines, thoughtful proportions, careful joinery and durable materials were not aesthetic choices but a reflection of their spiritual devotion. To make something carelessly would have been inconsistent with their most cherished values. And this perspective transformed every aspect of the way they approached design.  

The design decisions at the Hancock Shaker Village reflect a community that asked itself not, "what is impressive?" but, "how can this be made better?" And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Hancock's extraordinary Round Stone Barn.

This exceptionally elegant structure is a particularly clear expression of the Shakers' belief that good design should emerge from purpose rather than aesthetics. While its circular form makes it one of the most visually distinctive agricultural buildings in America, the barn was never intended as an architectural novelty. Instead, its design was thoughtfully considered to improve the efficiency of daily farm work.

Rather than following the traditional rectangular form of most nineteenth-century barns, the Shakers designed the building as a perfect circle. Its thoughtful geometry allowed workers, animals and materials to move through in a continuous flow. The three levels of the barn each have their own floor-level doorway, achieved through the integration of the circular shape within a hill. Wagons can enter the upper level, unload hay into a large central hay storage, and then continue around the circular floor before exiting through the same doorway, eliminating the need for awkward and time-consuming reversing, or people having to climb to reach the upper floor while carrying hay bales. On the level below, dairy cows can eat hay from the central hay storage, allowing feed to be distributed quickly and evenly. Beneath the cows, manure drops through trapdoors into the cellar, where it can be collected for use as fertiliser. The entire building functions as an integrated system in which gravity and thoughtful planning reduced unnecessary labour.   

The barn is just one of many examples of how the Shakers used thought and care to innovate and improve traditional designs. They were practical rather than nostalgic, embracing new technologies whenever they genuinely improved daily life. But progress was never pursued for its own sake, nor was tradition preserved simply because this is how things had always been done. Instead, the Shakers had a refreshing willingness to continually refine while remaining anchored within their values.  

Despite the enduring popularity of their ladder-back chairs, timeless kitchen cabinetry and beautifully crafted peg rails, the true legacy of Shaker design lies far beyond the individual objects they produced. Their greatest contribution was not a recognisable aesthetic but a philosophy of making: one in which every decision was guided by purpose, integrity and care. Beauty was never pursued as an end in itself. Instead, it emerged naturally from objects that fulfilled their purpose exceptionally well and were crafted with unwavering devotion to quality.

In an age that often prizes novelty and appearance above all else, the Shakers offer a quietly radical alternative. Their approach to design invites us to reconsider our relationship with the things we choose to surround ourselves with. Do our homes support the lives we hope to lead? Are the objects we own made well enough to deserve repair and to be passed on? Do our spaces encourage the activities we most value?

Although Hancock Shaker Village no longer functions as a living community, its buildings and their contents continue to speak with remarkable clarity. More than two centuries later, they demonstrate that the most enduring design is rarely born from the pursuit of style alone. It emerges from a clear set of values, thoughtfully translated into the way we build, make and live. Perhaps this is why Shaker design continues to resonate so deeply today. Long after fashions have changed, their creations remind us that objects rooted in purpose, integrity and care possess a timelessness that aesthetics alone can never achieve.