NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine — Contractors tackled a one-of-a-kind restoration on Monday in New Gloucester.
A bright red 85-foot-long barn at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village was built in 1830. It had been suspended in the air since June, while money was raised to renovate its crumbling foundation. Between the National Parks Service and private donors, $1.4 million was raised, and on Monday, it was finally lowered back down to the ground.
The building's timber was far from crumbling.
While their religion is commonly misunderstood, the Shakers are world-famous for their craftsmanship. Before beginning the lift, workers measured the structure and found it was just one-half-inch off of plumb.
The barn is important, not just for preserving history.
The day it touched back onto solid ground, it would continue to be used for work on the village farm, as it had since the day it was built. The village at Sabbathday Lake is the living capital of the Shaker world. While the Christian religion grew to more than 4,000 members in the US in the years after first reaching North America from England in 1774, the only two living members left in the world both live at Sabbathday Lake.
Brother Arnold is one of them. He was happy to get hay back in the barn and get back to work.
"I’m overjoyed to see it because, here at Sabbathday Lake, two of my favorite places to be are the stable and the ox barn," Arnold said of the renovation. "To know they’re here and know they’re preserving it for our heirs is very important."
Michael Graham is not a member of the church, but he directs the village's museum and educational programs.
"This farm and its activities represent a bedrock of farming traditions in Maine that are definitely at risk," Graham said when asked if he was nervous about eventually losing the final two members.
About 180 Shakers lived in the New Gloucester settlement at its peak in 1792, Graham explained—considered one of the smallest communities of the whole religion.
And yet it is the last one standing.
Not only are the Shakers welcoming to visitors at Sabbathday Lake, but they’re open to people applying to join the church and keep their religion and their wondrous works alive, well into the future.