In celebration of the 1915 Barn Complex’s centennial anniversary, Shaker Heritage Society will host a picnic, complete with games, door prizes and a bit of history.
The Shaker Country Picnic will be held at the Shaker site, 1848 Meeting House Road, Saturday, June 13, from 3 to 7 p.m. With a performance from the Graham Tichy Band and food from Sweet Mama Mia Food Truck of Sharon Springs, Shaker Heritage is hosting the public event in celebration of the Barn Complex’s 100th anniversary.
“We’ll also have some other musicians strolling around,” said Shaker Heritage Executive Director Starlyn D’Angelo. “We’re going to have some fun lawn games, just silly things like three-legged races and the spoon game with door prizes.”
Along with the games and food vendors, a basket maker will be on hand to demonstrate. All member of the public are invited to come and celebrate the 1915 Barn Complex’s long history.
“It’s intended to be a fun celebration of the barn and our recent stabilization efforts, so people can see the work that we’ve done. We’re almost finished,” said D’Angelo.
May 20 marked the barn raising’s exact date, celebrated with an open house and by honoring former Assemblyman Bob Reilly, who helped Shaker Heritage secure funding.
The Heritage Society has recently undergone a $400,000 stabilization effort for the 1915 Barn Complex. Shaker Heritage originally received $310,000 in grants from private foundations and the state to stabilize the complex. The funding helped repair roofs, foundation and windows. The state of the manure barn, however, proved to be in a worse state than anticipated and called for an emergency $90,000 in March.
According to D’Angelo, the foundation in the manure barn lacked proper footing for foundation and was only a full concrete slab. Since concrete was a new material when the barn was built, it was not properly laid and some of the foundation was crumbling.
“The reason why that part of the Barn Complex is so important is because those type of structures tend to be lost over time. They’re becoming more and more rare,” said D’Angelo.
With the emergency funding, the manure barn was repaired, and Shaker Heritage plans to turn that barn into composting toilets so the 1915 Complex can more readily be used for educational programs and special events like weddings, since there are no bathrooms in that section.
D’Angelo said the Shaker site is not intended to be a living history museum like Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, where staff reenacts life in rural New England from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
When the Heritage Society became tenants of the property, it had a plan to use the site for mixed use, with buildings restored, but opening the site to the public for other uses.
“When Albany County purchased the property, there were no Shaker museums and no historic preservation nationwide,” said D’Angelo. “They used what they needed to.”
About 20 buildings were torn down, she said, while others were used for housing tuberculosis patients in the early 1900s. When the Ann Lee Nursing Home closed about eight years ago, Shaker Heritage was able to start renovating and restoring buildings.
D’Angelo said the Heritage Society hopes to achieve a significant amount within the next 10 years to ensure the site remains in tact. She said the site is important not only because of the historical significance of the buildings, but because many people don’t realize how much of the Capital District’s history lies with the Shakers.
Town of Colonie Historian Kevin Franklin agreed. “The Shaker influence here in Colonie, most people think it’s just associated to the area around the airport, which was its hub,” he said, but “out-farms” were spread all over the area, including one on Vly Road and in Loundonville.
“Their influence was spread throughout the town during the late 18th century, throughout the 19th and into the early 20th,” said Franklin. He said that, looking at historical maps of the town, small markers reading “Shaker” are all over the maps.
Structures like the 1915 Barn Complex, Franklin said, are even more important to preserve because buildings like those often fall as time passes. “It’s probably the largest remaining barn in the Town of Colonie currently,” he said.
However, while this year has been about celebrating the barn, D’Angelo said the Heritage Society is thinking about future efforts to draw more awareness to the Shakers. In the coming months, Shaker Heritage and other museums in the area are planning joint tours.
Later this summer, the society will join with the Mount Lebanon and Hancock Shaker villages. Many people may have already noticed the exhibits in the New York State Museum.
As well, a committee of staff, volunteers and board members has been working to organize events throughout the year, including the 1915 Barn Complex celebrations and the joint tours.
“This year has really been bout finishing the barn stabilization, but also collaborating to draw attention to the Shaker resources in the area, which should be associated with Shakers the same way that Pennsylvania is associated with the Amish,” said D’Angelo. “We need to start drawing more attention to the first few Shaker histories.”
More information on the Shaker Heritage Society, including information about the centennial picnic, can be found at shakerheritage.org.
