In New Hampshire, we like to celebrate our inventiveness, business know-how and technical nimbleness, which is a good reason to appreciate Canterbury Shaker Village.
Wait – what?
Isn’t Canterbury Shaker Village an old-timey working museum, the sort of place that will celebrate its season opening Saturday with a parade of cows?
Yes it is, but it’s also a classic example of a technology business that pivoted and redefined itself in the face of disruptive innovation.
Consider the making of brooms, a major source of community income during the mid-19th century. The community made and sold a whopping 36,000 brooms in 1860. Visitors can still see the intricate hand-operated machines that twisted broom corn (actually a variety of sorghum) and attached it to handles, creating a cleaning device that was sold far and wide – until they were undercut by new technology that the Shakers couldn’t afford.
“When machinery was developed to make brooms on a big scale, they realized it was time to find a new industry. They were very quick to move on,” said Becky Soules, a daily visitor and youth programs manager for the historic site. “The Shakers weren’t static, they evolved. They were very inventive.”
This is an aspect of the Shakers that surprises people, said Nicole Lauren, special events manager, during a pre-opening tour of the 694-acre farm in Canterbury.
“People equate this with the Amish, the simple life, and they’re surprised the Shakers had so much industry and were so inventive in ways to get things done,” Lauren said.
In fact, Soules noted proudly, the Shaker community had electricity before the State House did, using big wet-cell batteries and later, their own hydropower. Simple life, indeed.
The Canterbury village was one of a number of communities that the Shakers (so called because they used “ecstatic dance” in worship) established in this country after emigrating from England in 1774. The community was established in 1792 and flourished for two centuries, becoming famous for its furniture, its handsome Shaker boxes (still sold in the gift shop) and its success establishing a “communitarian” lifestyle that was wealthy and successful, while staying true to its beliefs.
The one thing that the celibate Shakers didn’t have is children, which proved a fatal flaw when society changed and people stopped joining. The last member in residence, Eldress Ethel Hudson, died in 1992, but fortunately the group had foresight and had turned their community into a museum clear back in 1969, which is why it has been preserved – to the delight of visitors, historians and Canterbury itself.
As a national historic site, the village doesn’t pay property taxes, although it does occasionally make a payment in lieu of taxes, but even so it is welcome in town.
“The town identifies itself with the Shaker Village; it’s part of Canterbury’s identity,” said Town Administrator Ken Folsom.
Of course, keeping a museum of this size and scope going isn’t easy, or cheap.
“Everything constantly needs work when you have 25 old buildings to keep up,” said Caroline Golja, development associate for the village.
The museum has an annual operating budget of about $880,000, with seven full-time employees, a number of seasonal and part-time workers and a whole slew of volunteers. It has developed innovative programs in recent years, such as the partnership with Lakes Region Community College, in which the school’s culinary arts program staffs the Shaker Table restaurant, and an expanded gift shop, and the way the Concord Food Co-op uses and works on its gardens.
But it’s looking for more ways to bring in revenue without undermining the museum’s appearance or mission.
For example, said Golja, the museum would like to stay open in the winter for snowshoeing or skiing on its snow-covered fields, instead of just an occasional special event.
“But that takes things like outdoor lighting,” she said.
Canterbury Shaker Village has a Foundation for the Future program, which is aiming to raise $250,000 for capital improvement projects, and may be launching a horse barn upgrade program in which donors buy bricks bearing their names.
In the meantime, it will be open for guided tours all summer, one of the most unusual and charming – and also just a bit geeky – places to visit in New Hampshire.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)