The Shaker village's 19 historic buildings will be protected by an easement. (Roxanne Elfin)

Once a group of 6,000, the four Shakers left in the world farm 1,700 acres at Sabbathday Lake, 20 miles northeast of Portland, Maine, where their commune has existed since 1784. Known as "the least of Mother's children in the East," because it was the poorest of the 19 Shaker communities, the village of Mother Ann Lee's followers had, at its peak, 187 people.

Now the Shakers' farm is divided into three parts by a four-lane highway, which puts it square in the path of development pressures from the three largest towns in Maine: Lewiston-Auburn, New Gloucester, and Portland.

To protect their land, five years ago the last Shakers contacted the Lands for Maine's Future program, which keeps some state landscapes and farmland in the public trust. The Shaker settlement at Sabbathday Lake is one of only 40 National Historic Landmarks in Maine. Because the area had been evolving from a primarily rural area to a more suburban area, farmland is taxed at a higher rate. Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the four Shakers, says taxes were a driving force behind signing over their development rights.

"We wanted to retain the property as a farm at an equitable tax rate," he says. "This isn't for our end, but for all time and people. We want to preserve the village in its totality for those who visit to find peace and a place of reflection."

(Roxanne Elfin)

The Trust for Public Land brokered the two easement deals. Through the cooperative efforts of stage agricultural and conservation agencies, this month the Shakers are selling development rights to the farmland as an easement that the New England Forestry Foundation will hold in perpetuity. Selling an easement on a property means that the landowner retains ownership but, in exchange for maintaining its lands or its historic buildings in a certain way, gets a tax break or other monetary compensation. In October, an easement on the 19 historic structures in the Shaker Village will be sold to Preservation Maine.

The easement deal had to make sense for the owners, who wanted to protect their buildings and acres while they continued to live there and work the land, says Jennifer Melville of the Trust for Public Land's Maine office. "The goal was not to freeze the landscape in time," Melville says. "We are committed to maintaining [the Shaker] legacy."

The group organized 11 different community, state, and local government organizations to purchase the development rights to the property and to raise an endowment fund to maintain the buildings and lands in perpetuity.

(Roxanne Elfin)

Shaker missionaries immigrated from England and settled in Maine in 1783 and the following year formed a small village of farm families. By the 1800s, a large mill industry turned out woodenware: buckets, pails, and spinning wheels. Today, the Sabbathday Lake property includes a 1,000-acre tree farm, a gravel pit, 30 acres of apple orchards, 25 acres of hay, 40 acres for the cultivation of herbs, which they sell at their visitors center, as well as 30 acres of pasture where sheep, pigs, and highland beef cattle are raised. The Shakers own the last undeveloped shoreline of the lake, also the headwaters of the Royal River.

The Shaker farm was vulnerable for many reasons, explains Stephanie Gilbert, who has worked with the easement project as part of the state's farmland protection program. The Shakers rent part of their land to other local farms, which makes the property important to local farmers. Trends in Maine agriculture have shown that rented lands are more vulnerable to real-estate development, she says. The state agricultural department wanted to see the land sustained as a business resource for local agricultural interests.

"Shakers, not unlike other Maine farm families, don't know where the next generation will come from," Gilbert says.

While the conservation easement goes into effect this month, the Trust for Public Land and Maine Preservation continue to raise funds for the preservation easement and endowment. The 19 historic buildings in the village include the last active meeting house in the world, whose interior dates to 1794.

(Roxanne Elfin)

"The Shakers are trying to protect their home and have enough money to maintain their historic buildings in an appropriate way," says Roxanne Eflin, executive director of Maine Preservation, which will become an active participant in helping the Shakers maintain their historic buildings.

So far, the groups have raised $2.17 million of the $3.695 million goal. The Trust for Public Land and Maine Preservation are trying to raise another $1.5 million to complete the historic building easement and endowment fund by this fall. While state and federal grants have contributed to the fund, private donations have constituted the largest segment of funds raised to date.

What's unusual about the Sabbathday Lake project is that it protects an active, evolving farm. The Shakers continue to raise cattle, grow trees, and sell herbs at their shop.

"The Shakers are pragmatic people," says Lenny Brook, who has lived with the Shakers for 17 years and worked as their museum director. "Four or 400, they would have wanted to protect their living heritage."

Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter >>

Recent Stories