Seven to Save 2023: La Salette Shrine / Shaker Village North Family

Enfield’s Shaker village was established in 1793 on the shores of Mascoma Lake, a landscape they called, “Chosen Vale.” At its peak in 1850, the village included 350 residents, 3,000 acres of land, and 100 buildings. This industrious, pacifist and celibate religious Society organized itself into three separate entities, which they designated the Church, the Second (or South) and the North Families. The latter served as the community’s gathering order, where a person could try living as a Shaker without making a permanent commitment to the faith. In each family there was a Trustees office which served as the interface with the outside world.

The Enfield Shakers closed their community and consolidated with Canterbury in 1923. In 1927 they sold their Church and North Family properties to the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. This Catholic order used the site to live communally, farm, run a summer camp, and provide a high school education to boys considering a life in the priesthood. Many Shaker buildings were removed, re-purposed or renovated, while new structures, including the Mary Keane Chapel and a hillside shrine were added to the landscape.

By 1985 the camp and high school had closed, and the Missionaries of La Salette sold much of their property to private developers. It was then that the Enfield Shaker Museum was born. Since its founding, the Museum has slowly acquired, primarily through purchase, 8 Church Family Shaker buildings, the Mary Keane Chapel and 26 acres of land.

The La Salettes retained ownership of five North Family Shaker buildings, two Catholic chapels, and an elaborate shrine known for its annual Festival of Christmas Lights.

This year, when the Catholic order announced its plans to close the Shrine and sell its land and buildings, the Enfield Shaker Museum positioned itself to purchase the property and reunite the adjacent North Family Shaker land with the existing museum campus. This August, the museum launched its “Together Again” campaign, which seeks to raise $3 million to purchase and make repairs to the North Family property. At the end of September, the first phase – the purchase – was completed.

The campaign will now be devoted to planning for the future. Many deferred maintenance issues in the buildings must be addressed. Opportunities for creative use of the thousands more square feet of space will be explored. Improvements in the care of the land will be undertaken. And at the heart of the Museum’s mission will be the sharing with a local, national, and world-wide audience, the stories, and the relevance of, the two religious communities that worked and worshipped here from 1793 to 2023.

Seven to Save designation is not new to Enfield. In the Preservation Alliance’s inaugural list in 2006, the Great Stone Dwelling was added when a capital campaign sought to make much needed repairs. Today’s listing seeks to generate interest, donations, and ideas for the largest museum acquisition New Hampshire has seen in decades.

Stay up to date on this program, including when submissions open for next year’s list, and browse listees from past years (we’ve been highlighting endangered properties since 2006!) by visiting the Seven to Save homepage.

Are you part of a group involved with one of our previous listees? We’d love to hear how you’re doing! Call us at (603) 224-2281 or email seventosave@nhpreservation.org.