Having always thought Shakers were akin to the Amish and Mennonites, it was an eye-opening experience to visit the Shaker Museum at South Union, located fifteen miles outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Established in 1807 and open until 1922, the Shakers were a people who believed in progress, equal rights for all and celibacy. In it’s heyday, the South Union Shakers was a thriving community, open to all. It’s gradual downfall began after the Civil War when their resources had been depleted by both the Union and Confederate armies who occupied their lands.
The largest of the Shaker communities in the “West,” the group reached a peak of 349 members, encompassed 6000 acres and held over 200 buildings. When the community closed in 1922, it was sold at auction to a wealthy businessman who tore down many of the buildings, including the church to build his house, and razed the community graveyard, using the tombstones as fertilizer for his crops. Many of the Shaker’s detailed manuscripts were left lying on the floor in one of the buildings during the auction, where they were picked up by curious residents. These have provided the basis for all restoration projects and history at the museum.
The South Union Shaker Village was a completely self-sustaining community, building their own furniture, growing crops and orchards, and raising their own animals. They were the first in the area to have a steam engine, a gasoline pump, corn shellers, lightning rods, and sewing machines. When other pioneers in the area were living in log cabins with dirt floors, the Shakers were using running water in their kitchens. By the early 1900’s they had installed indoor bathrooms, a telephone and had their own automobile.
We began our tour with a short ten minute film on the history of the village, followed by a walking tour through the Centre House, built in 1824. The 3 story building has been restored to its classic Shaker style, right down to the furnishings and pegs on the wall. We continued through the Elder’s house, a perfect example of Shaker architecture. The brightly colored stair railings, doors and floor defy the rumors that the Skakers were a humorless, colorless people. The tour can be continued through several other buildings, including the barn, a grain warming building and one of the Shaker workshops.
If you go: The museum is off of the beaten path in an area surrounded by farmland. Most of their money used to maintain the village comes from farming. Tickets are only $8 for adults and $4 for children ages 6-12. The museum is open during regular season (March -November) from 9:00 Am-5 PM Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM Sundays. Seasonal hours from December -February are 10 AM- 4 PM Tuesday-Saturday.
Be sure to visit the gift shop for a large selection of Kentucky made crafts and foods. We purchased some delicious Blackberry jelly and Apple Jelly made by the local Mennonite community.
Plan on wearing comfortable walking shoes to tour the area.
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I love visiting historical places and re-imagining the lives of people before us. Like you I was under the impression that Shakers and Amish are the same. Thanks for the education.
Since i love primitive decor, this looks like just my kind of simple living minus the fact that there is not tech!
I love going to old museums to see how things used to be. This looks like a great one.
I love museums like that. Love the pictures you shared.
I think it makes so much more of an impact to see it in person. I’d love to take the family there someday.
You can just feel the history there. I really do love museums.
Looks like such a great place to visit. I love taking my family to see historical places.
Mennonite community is a community that has interested my curiosity because it’s so different then what I’m used to and I think those jams would be something I would buy in barrels lol
I don’t know much about Shaker history so this would be an interesting place to visit. I love museums to learn about how people lived years ago.
I love history museums like this one. Although I’ve never been, so I’ll have to add it to my list. Thanks for sharing!
Oh Pam, what a lovely place to get to go to. Their furniture is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing your time there with us!
I am always fascinated by the Shakers. I learned all about them in Design school. Thanks for the refresher course and I would love to visit that museum
I just love historical places. What a great little museum!
Thanks for the info on the Shakers Museum near Bowling Green in South Union, KY. I would love to visit here.
This is the kind of thing I find really interesting. It’s totally reasonable in cost too. You find the best stuff!
This looks like a neat museum. I love places filled with history.
I just love history stuff like this! Seems like an awesome trip.
I love museums. Great pictures!
This sounds like a fascinating place to visit. I would love to see this museum!
I love museums, what a wonderful place to visit. I do not frequent places like this often as my son’s are not as intrigued by this on a regular, I have to feel out their moods/mindset before attending such an event. I love the pictures, looks so comfy and homey!
I love museums like this. I don’t care as much for glass cases. I like to be able to “experience” the mood and time.
History is one of my favorite things. I love off the beaten path trips. I can’t believe that business man would do that with the cemetery. Shameful.
I love museums like that! I took my son to a small local one recently and it was fascinating .
I love the furniture in this time period. I think this would be such an interesting tour and would love to take it sometime when we are in the area.
This place looks really cool. I’d love to visit there!
What a nice museum! Makes you feel like you were in there in the old days!
What an amazing museum to tour! I am always so fascinated with historical museums!
How neat! I LOVE places like this! They’re so fun to tour, and they make me thank my lucky stars that I was born in THIS time period LOL
Very cool! Living in the South- we have a lot of fun historical homes to visit.
The place gives a sense of comfort for history lovers. My husband would like to visit places like this.
I would love to visit this place! I love museums of all kinds.
We have a place like that about an hour from here that we visited in the summer. Was a great day and the kids enjoy it and get to learn with it being boring.
we used to live sort of near a shaker museum in new hampshire. there were so many talented craftsman who lived a shaker lifestyle!
What an amazingly historic place to visit, I love places like these 🙂
This is a great history to experience. I would love to see this.
I like visiting places like this, to see how others lived, or live today. Looks like a place I’d like to go. Putting this on my every growing list of places I must go and take my family.
So interesting! I grew up near Amish country but don’t know much about the Shakers.
I’ve never been to a place like this before, I’d love to go and give it a try.
When you look at how sparse the homes were in that time… it makes me realize we could live with much less than we do. Those beds sure don’t look very comfortable.
I love living history museums. I think everyone should visit a few in their life. We have a large on in Detroit , the Ford one. It’s really awesome.
This sounds like a fascinating museum. I’d love to visit and learn more about the Shakers.
My 6th great grandmother lived at this Shaker Village for about ten years before she died in 1837 and was buried there in the cemetery that was razed. I didn’t have this information when I visited another one close by, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, just outside Harrodsburg, Ky. I only knew that I was drawn to it; visited twice before I knew. Haven’t gotten to this one yet, on my bucket list.
This sounds like a fascinating place to visit. I’d love to learn more about the Shakers.
I enjoy visiting old homes – it is so interesting to me how our ancestors lived.
I don’t know what it is about museums, but I absolutely LOVE visiting them. I find them fascinating!
It looks like a great place to visit. Living in PA, there are a lot of Amish. But I didn’t know about the Shakers
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this! I live in SC now but I was born and raised in KY for 40 years and I had never heard of this before. I will have to make time to stop and check this out the next time I go back home to visit.
I’d love to visit the Shaker Museum. I love historical sites like this.
This would be a really great place to go for a history lesson! We just moved from PA and visited the Amish villages every now and again for their jams. So tasty, and such great history!
We have tons of history here in Boston, too – oh and Plimouth Plantation, which is an awesome living history museum!
Oh I love living museums! How fun and a great way to teach the kids.
I enjoy museum so much especially when you get to visit the history of our country and land.
I love history so much. That sounds like a fascinating museum.