Barn - Laundry - Garage

Barn - Laundry - Garage. . , Barn (1915) , The Barn is one of the newest Shaker structures on the Church family site, built in 1915 after the previous barn was burned in an act of arson the year before. This baen features many modern design features of its time, a claw and pulley system for unloading straw into the hay barn, and a conveyor system for transporting manure from the dairy barn to the shed next door., Wash House/Laundry - Cannery (1858) , Shakers were practical, and not afraid to embrace new technologies if they improved the efficiency and quality of their work. Shakers developed a number of inventions of their own and improved the inventions of others. After Shakers at Canterbury, NH invented the commercial washing machine in the 1870s, the Church Family installed similar machines here. Shakers were the first to manufacture hermetically sealed metal cans for storing food. The garage bays along Meeting House Road replaced a three-story cannery building constructed for processing fruit and vegetables., Garage (1920) , The last building constructed for the Church Family indicates just how easily the Shakers adopted new technology: it is the 1920 three-door garage near the Meeting House built to house their Packard automobiles!, [Photo Captions:] , The largest section of this building was the hay barn. The former cow barn is in the middle and is attached by a track to the manure shed at the right. The barns were noted for their large size. Large sliding doors were built on opposite sides of the building, which enabled hay wagons to drive into the bar and out the other side., The combination Wash House/Laundry Cannery was built in 1858. At one time Shaker Creek provided water the Shakers needed to run the machines in both buildings. , Canning was a major industry for the Shakers in the late 1800's. They pioneered the process of hermetically sealing (vacuum) cans. Water was diverted from stream to rum machinery to can tomatoes, beans, com, peas, pears, peaches, carrots, applesauce, and beets. At one point, the Shakers were canning up to 90 dozen cans a day. The cannery wing was torn down and replaced by garages after 1930. , Left: Wash house along Shaker Creek is the foreground. Right: The garage along Meeting House Road originally was the site of this three-story cannery., In the 1920's Shakers adopted the automobile. The South Family was the last Watervliet site to close in 1938, and this truck was used to transport goods to market.