Harvard Shaker Community

Quote

Thirty miles northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, in the northeast corner of the town of Harvard, the Shakers established one of their earliest communities. They chose the spot that Mother Ann Lee, their sect's founder had used as her headquarters during her 1781-1783 missionary journey from Watervliet, New York, to New England. Lee and her followers purchased the Square House in Harvard, built by local New Light minister, Shadrack Ireland. The Square House became the cornerstone of what would become the Harvard Shaker community after Lee's return to Watervliet and her subsequent death. Never among the largest of Shaker communities, the Harvard Shakers reached their peak population between
1825 and 1849, when they may have had as many as 188 members living in four "families". Source: Harvard Shakers