Mount Lebanon Shaker Society

Mount Lebanon Shaker Society
Main dwelling circa July 2008
LocationNew Lebanon, New York
Coordinates42°27′9.18″N 73°22′50.37″W / 42.4525500°N 73.3806583°W / 42.4525500; -73.3806583
Built1785
NRHP reference No.66000511
NYSRHP No.02115.000034
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHLJune 23, 1965[2]
Designated NYSRHPJune 23, 1980

Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, also known as New Lebanon Shaker Society, was a communal settlement of Shakers in New Lebanon, New York. The earliest converts began to "gather in" at that location in 1782 and built their first meetinghouse in 1785. The early Shaker Ministry, including Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright, the architects of Shakers' gender-balanced government, lived there.[3]

Isaac N. Youngs, the society's scribe, chronicled the life of this Shaker village for almost half a century. Youngs also designed the schoolhouse built there in 1839.[4]

Holy Mount, where Shaker services were held, has a spur ridge which has been called Mount Lebanon.

In addition to the Shakers' central Ministry, notable residents at Mount Lebanon's North Family included Elder Frederick W. Evans, known for his public preaching, and his partner, Eldress Antoinette Doolittle, who was succeeded by Anna White, M. Catherine Allen[5] artists Sarah Bates, and Polly Anne Reed.[6]

The North Family was also known for publishing a book of poetry, Mount Lebanon Cedar Boughs: original poems by the North family of Shakers, Anna White, ed. (Buffalo: Peter Paul Company, 1895), with a number of poems by Cecilia Devere and Martha Anderson.

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. ^ "Mount Lebanon Shaker Society". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-15. Archived from the original on 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  3. ^ Stephen J. Stein, The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers (New Haven: Yale, 1992).
  4. ^ Glendyne R. Wergland, One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793-1865 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006).
  5. ^ Stephen J. Paterwic (11 August 2008). Historical Dictionary of the Shakers. Scarecrow Press. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6255-5.
  6. ^ Gerard C. Wertkin (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95614-1.