Great place to stop in and browse around. There is a small store with unique gifts. Make sure you walk around the grounds. Ann Lee pond is just around the corner with fun level well marked trails.
The staff is very nice, but there's little to see or learn. Other Shaker sites are better. I liked Hancock MA, Canterbury NH, and Sabbath Day ME.
The Shaker site, garden and grounds are free to explore and visit any day, any hour. But, go during their gift shop hours so you can visit the buildings and peruse the gift shop. Buy something or leave a donation to support the heritage society for once these buildings are gone, they're gone forever. The Shakers once owned 600 acres of land but over the years have had it whittled down by politics, expansion and the need for money. Ann Lee's burial grave was even moved to accommodate a baseball field.
I don't know why schools are not shuttling their students to this historic site. Mother Ann Lee was a charismatic woman at a time when women had their place in our male dominated society and she bravely fought the church, societal norms and faced persecution, imprisonment, stoning, whipping and mocking to practice her faith. She created settlements all over the Eastern seaboard and had thousands of followers. Many streets and buildings are named after the Shakers and most people don't even know why. The Shakers were on the forefront of technology - inventing the circular saw, push and sweep brooms, herbal medicine, gardening and farming techniques, seed and herbal catalogs and shipping through the mail and, they were the first in this area to install a telephone.
AS a former Troy resident, I still love coming through the area to see the site!
A must visit if your in the area. Small but full of interesting facts and local connections.
Shaker Heritage Society is a US Museum based in Albany, New York. Shaker Heritage Society is located at 25 Meeting House Rd, Albany, NY 12211, USA.
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