ALFRED (AP) – A historic 19th-century carriage house now sits in a new location in this York County town where preservationists plan to convert it into a museum about the Alfred Shakers.
The red, two-story building, which weighs at least 80,000 pounds, was placed Tuesday on a flatbed trailer and hauled to the new site a few hundred yards away.
The Friends of the Alfred Shaker Museum said the old location lacked parking and was ill-suited for what they hope will be a museum about the religious community that dates back to the 1780s.
“I think where they’re going to put it will be a better place for it,” said Perley Yeaton, 65, a neighbor who was among some 20 onlookers who observed the hourlong move that was financed with $20,000 in private donations.
The exterior of the carriage house has already been restored, and the Friends of the Alfred Shaker Museum estimate they need to raise another $100,000 to finish a museum and research center.
The Alfred Shakers had more than 200 people and 65 buildings at the community’s peak around the 1840s, but only eight of the structures remain. The Alfred Shakers moved to New Gloucester in 1931 to join the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community.
A sign on the carriage house dates the building to 1875, but Betty Morrison, president of the Friends of the Alfred Shaker Museum, said it may actually be 160 years old.
The former Shaker property has been owned for decades by the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
The religious order’s youngest resident is 61, and an eventual sale of the property is possible.
Among those observing the building’s move was Brother Marcel Crete, who was 13 when he moved to Shaker Hill in 1947 and remembers playing basketball and dodgeball in the carriage house.
“It was our sports arena. It was our gym,” Crete recalled.
None of the observers seemed overly sentimental about uprooting the old carriage house, perhaps because the Shakers themselves often moved, demolishing and remodeling their own buildings. The Alfred Shakers, in fact, moved their meeting house in 1786, just three years after they arrived in town, the preservation group said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.