Stillness and Light: The Silent Eloquence of Shaker Architecture

1. Simplicity: Pristine Light

Simplicity•priStine light White-Painted Woodwork Meetinghouse (1820) Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 1 14 Monotone Mass The radical simplification produced by a single exterior color, characteristic of Shaker architecture, serves to unite each form, while accentuating the play of light over a surface, enveloping the whole in a subdued atmosphere. These monochromatic effects, free of either visual friction or excitement, range from the absolute purity of a white meetinghouse, to the monotone crust of stone or brick around a dwelling, or continuous coat of yellow paint on a workshop. Facing. White Limestone Façade First West Family Dwelling (1811–12) Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Below. Yellow-Painted Volume Brethren’s Shop (1810) Hancock, Massachusetts 16 Pure White Cavity A spotless surface of smooth plaster and white paint serves to purify Shaker space. This image of perfection reveals the slightest sign of dirt, is devoid, one might even say absolved, of darkness, and is inherently ethereal, reduced to nothing but sheer light. Below. Front Entry Hall Center Family Dwelling House (1824–34) Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Facing. Ministry Hall Meetinghouse Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 18 Central Hall Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 19 Ministry Dining Room Center Family Dwelling House (Ministry Addition 1845) Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 20 Fr aMed Whiteness In part to avoid smudgy finger marks and keep white surfaces entirely clean, and thereby virtuous, Shakers stained or painted the bordering elements touched by people—banisters and drawer pulls, doors and floorboards, peg rails and trim. These darker points and edgings have the further benefit of perceptually heightening the purity of whiteness left unblemished. By having its chaste glow framed and thrown into relief, the white ground is emancipated from the wall, and its whites made even whiter by contrast. Left. Hallway Ceiling Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Facing. Entrance Hall Ministry Shop (1839, remodeled 1875) Sabbathday Lake, Maine 22 Attached Outhouse Ministry Shop Sabbathday Lake, Maine 23 Wood Knobs and Drawer Pulls Ministry Shop Sabbathday Lake, Maine 24 BetWeen Wood & Plaster A harmonious blending of heaven and earth was achieved by a Shaker palette reduced, often, to two very simple materials—white plaster above, and plain woodwork below—so that dwelling occurred inbetween , linked to both of these realms. The wood of a floor normally extends up into peg rails, and a partial sheathing of walls, elaborated at times into long banks of built-in cabinets and drawers stretching to the ceiling, whose continuous relief is brought alive by raking light from corner windows. Facing. Wood-Lined Alcove Spin Shop (1795, remodeled 1816) Canterbury, New Hampshire Left. Built-in Cupboards in Sisters’ Waiting Room Church Family Dwelling House (1830–31) Hancock, Massachusetts 27 Facing. Meetingroom Church Family Dwelling House Hancock, Massachusetts Above. Storage Wall in Sisters’ Attic Church Family Dwelling House (1793, remodeled 1837) Canterbury, New Hampshire 28 Wooden Cavern In several rare but beautiful cases, soft wood lines an entire Shaker room, wrapping around every surface and over the ceiling to produce an impression of being inside the wood. In such a monolithic volume, the whole space fills with a warm tawny atmosphere. The ambience is golden, and faintly celestial, where wood is washed with a bright yellow or orange stain, as if transmuting the earthen material into a more pure and, for Shakers, divine substance. Above. Woodshed and Privy Schoolhouse (1823, remodeled 1863) Canterbury, New Hampshire Left. Laundry Room and Drying Racks Laundry (1816, remodeled through 1908) Canterbury, New Hampshire Facing. Attic Trustee’s Office (1813) Hancock, Massachusetts Below. Closet and Staircase Schoolhouse Canterbury, New Hampshire ...