Stillness and Light: The Silent Eloquence of Shaker Architecture

3. Luminosity: Inner Light

luminOSity•inner light 3 Corner of Attic Center Family Dwelling House South Union, Kentucky 50 MaxiMuM Fenestr ation In their efforts to squeeze as much daylight as possible into buildings, Shakers pierced the outer walls with closely spaced windows, allowing illumination to stream in from every side. As the most sacred place in the Shaker settlement, and the nearest thing to heaven on earth, the meetinghouse was made especially airy and bright by a continuous band of repeating windows. But rendered almost as porous, and at times cathedral-like, were utilitarian buildings such as laundries and machine shops, tanneries and poultry houses, mills and barns. Left. Circles of Windows on Three Different Levels Round Barn (1826, rebuilt 1865) Hancock, Massachusetts Facing. Meetingroom Windows Meetinghouse (1792–93, moved from Shirley to Hancock 1962) Hancock, Massachusetts 52 interior shutters The internal shutters with which windows are equipped at Canterbury and Enfield permit a range of lighting adjustments. At Enfield’s dwelling house, a four-shutter system allows each panel to be operated independently, or in combination with others, so that light can be regulated at will, like a camera aperture, according to weather, temperature, and human activity. When the shutters are opened, they fold back and disappear into window reveals. 53 Four-Shutter System Church Family Dwelling House (1837–41) Enfield, New Hampshire 54 White kentuCky liMestone The muted radiance of limestone dwellings at Pleasant Hill derives from an exceptionally white stone, known locally as Kentucky marble . The blocks vary slightly in tone and texture, according to where they were taken from the quarry and how they were subsequently cut, and were given an added perceptual depth by raised mortar and brighter stones used for lintels. The result is a wall from which light appears to issue, rather than merely reflect. Facing. Front Façade Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Below. Front Entry with Side-by-Side Doors Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 55 56 White-Painted stoneWork In the dark basement rooms of Pleasant Hill’s Center dwelling, scarce light admitted through windows is conserved by continual reflections off the white-painted foundation walls. Beyond brightening spaces that would otherwise be gloomy, whiteness sensitizes the texture to raking light, folding cast shadows into highlights, and making the dim illumination appear brighter by contrast. Facing. Basement Workroom Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Left. Basement Kitchen Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky 58 White on White As daylight pours into Shaker buildings, it immediately reflects off mirror-like floors and silky white plaster. The whiteness is neither uniform nor sterile, however, for a varied interplay of source and surface produces a thousand subtle, almost indefinable tones. As a result, rooms do not appear superficially bright, but seem to have soaked up light, as if taking possession of falling rays and wedding them into their own substance. Facing. Plaster Vaulting Center Family Dwelling House Pleasant Hill, Kentucky Left. Central Hallway Center Family Dwelling House South Union, Kentucky 60 yelloW light The luminous yellow paint used routinely on woodwork by early Shakers, set off by slightly dimmer yellow-oranges and yellow-reds, conveys a belief in color as materialized light. Sharing an intimation of heaven with adjoining white plaster are the radiant yellows of doors and window frames, cabinets and peg rails, baseboards and floors, all of which seem to emanate joy from unexpected directions, and give earth-bound rooms a skyward inflection. Facing. Yellow Window Frame Church Family Dwelling House Hancock, Massachusetts Left. Chrome-Yellow Trim and Yellow-Ocher Floor Church Family Dwelling House Hancock, Massachusetts 63 Facing. Yellow-Ocher Trim, Red-Ocher Baseboards, and Chrome-Yellow Floor Ministry Shop (1846–47) South Union, Kentucky Above. Yellow Cupboards and Woodbox Church Family Dwelling House Canterbury, New Hampshire 64 lustrous Wood Unpainted Shaker woodwork appears at first glance to be dark and dull, perhaps friendly to touch and forgiving of fingerprints, but a dim foil to gleaming white plaster. Closer inspection, however, especially for the moving eye, reveals a gentle sheen that waxes and wanes with angle of view and incident rays. This muted glow, often brightened by an orange stain or thin yellow wash, appears to lie within the...