Bringing a 1915 Barn Into the 21st Century
A view of the barn beyond a flowering tree full of pink blooms and a white bridge over the narrow Shaker Creek.
You can find this “broom making shop” inside the barn. SHS hosts broom making workshops and sells traditional handmade brooms in their gift shop.
For anyone arriving in New York’s Capital Region from Albany International Airport, it would probably be a surprise that just a stone’s throw away is a picturesque 770-acre historic district. The Watervliet Shaker Historic District was the site of America’s first Shaker settlement, established in 1776 by Mother Ann Lee and her followers. Shakers believed in communal living, egalitarianism, and self-sufficiency. According to the Shaker Heritage Society website, “The Shakers first developed their famous garden seed industry at Watervliet and Mt. Lebanon. Quality control, standardization of seed size and the innovative packaging of seeds in small envelopes (still used today) quickly led to a reputation for excellence in farming operations. The Shaker flat broom, several modified agricultural and woodworking tools, and a new variety of strawberries were all invented at Watervliet.”
Since 1978, the nonprofit Shaker Heritage Society (SHS) has been stewarding the Watervliet Shaker site in partnership with Albany County (the County took ownership of the site in the 1920s). The district is home to nine historic structures, including the restored 1848 Meeting House and 1915 Barn, a cemetery, apple orchard, herb garden, and open pastureland. It’s a lovely place to visit for both the historic buildings and its natural beauty. The Ann Lee Pond Nature & Historic Preserve is especially good for birdwatching.
Its close proximity to Albany and other surrounding suburbs makes it a convenient spot to get outside without traveling far. But it also makes it susceptible to encroaching development. The League listed the Watervliet Shaker National Register Historic District on our 2018-2019 Seven to Save list of endangered historic places, in part for this very reason. Increasing awareness of the site’s importance is integral to its protection. In addition to robust programming that includes craft fairs, workshops, and school field trips, one concrete way SHS is increasing awareness in the community is through rentals — specifically the renting of their 1915 Shaker Barn.
Over the course of about a decade, SHS fully restored the barn and it has become an important source of earned income for the nonprofit. (The League was proud to support these efforts in 2012 through both an Endangered Properties Intervention Program loan that supported the roof restoration and a NYSCA-funded Technical Assistance Grant for the completion of a structural engineering report.) Particularly popular for events like weddings, the barn provides a beautiful and rustic backdrop in a scenic landscape that is convenient for locals and out-of-towers alike. Rentals can bring a much wider audience to a site like Shaker Heritage — and once people experience it, they are much more likely to understand why its worth preserving.
Shaker Heritage Society Executive Director Johanna Batman stands in the barn’s horse stalls — an addition built after the property was acquired by Albany County. The plan is to make better use of this space by turning the horse stalls into accessible restrooms.
SHS is hoping to make their historic barn an even more appealing location for today’s audiences. The organization is currently completing a Feasibility Reuse Study with Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation to determine how they might adaptively reuse the barn’s horse stalls as restrooms. This study was funded in part through a 2020 Technical Assistance Grant from the League and our program partners at the New York State Council on the Arts. The horse stalls are not original to the building — they were added in the 1930s after Albany County took ownership of the site. Currently, they sit mostly unused, except for some overflow storage. Creating modern, accessible restrooms would make the space much more functional, and it would certainly appeal to anyone considering the site for their next event.
A project centered on restrooms is not necessarily the most glamorous, but it is important. Preserving historic sites is not so much about freezing them as they once were, but figuring out how best to respectfully bring them into the future. We can both respect and honor a building’s past while making it work for the needs of today. This project is just one example of how stewards of a historic site are thinking critically about how their space is actually used, how they can be of better service, and how to move forward with an eye to the past. As an organization, Shaker Heritage Society has done an admirable job of prioritizing preservation. The League continues to be proud to support them in their important work. And we hope they will be able to turn those horse stalls into toilet stalls in the near future.