Connecticut's only Shaker village farmed its way into Enfield history

ENFIELD - Enfield was home to the only Shaker community in Connecticut, according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Enfield Shakers Historic District, a National Park Service record (https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79002663).

The Shakers followed the English visionary Ann Lee. They practiced celibacy and equality of the sexes and owned their property in common, the nomination says. They put up their first buildings in Enfield in the 1780s, but most of what survives dates from 1830 to 1860, when the community was at its peak. By 1860, 146 Shakers lived here.

Farming paid the bills more than in any other Shaker community, according to the form. The Shakers sold packaged garden seeds, butter, cheese, canned corn and applesauce, and they bred horses. Until about 1850 they also voted and held office at Enfield town meetings, mostly on school questions.

The Shakers left in 1917. Fifteen of their buildings remain in the district along Shaker, Taylor and Cybulski roads, according to the nomination, among them the 1827 meetinghouse, which the form says had been converted into a prison shop.

Source: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Enfield Shakers Historic District, National Park Service (https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/79002663_text); NPGallery record (https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79002663).

How this story was made: AI tools helped research and draft this story, working from the sources cited and linked above. It was fact-checked against those sources, and our editor, Joshua Allen, reviewed and approved it before publication. See an error? Email upriverdaily@gmail.com.