page_title: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
section_title: Present and future
hierarchical_section_title: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village / Present and future
caption_attribution_description: English: Sabbathday Lake Village, Cumberland County, ME barns on NRHP
context_page_description: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is a Shaker village near New Gloucester and Poland, Maine, in the United States. It is the last active Shaker community, with three members as of 2017. The community was established in either 1782, 1783 or 1793, at the height of the Shaker movement in the United States. The Sabbathday Lake meetinghouse was built in 1794. The entire property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.
context_section_description: As Shakers are celibate, new members cannot be born into the group and must join from the outside. Many prospective members find the celibacy a major drawback and it keeps them from joining. Current members have taken steps to ensure that Sabbathday Lake Village will remain largely unchanged when the final members of the group die.
  The 1,643 acres (665 ha) of land owned by the Shakers in both Cumberland County and Androscoggin County include Sabbathday Lake which is 340 acres (140 ha) with 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of undeveloped shoreline with a beach that is open to the public and the 150 acres (61 ha) Shaker Bog. Other dismantled Shaker villages were converted into housing lots or prisons. In order to avoid this fate at Sabbathday Lake the Shakers took some preventive measures in 2001.
  Preservation and conservation easements were sold to Maine Preservation and the New England Forestry Foundation. The two groups with the help of eight other public and non-profit agencies are working to cover cost of the easements. The village and surrounding farmland and forests will be protected from development. Brother Arnold Hadd was quoted by the Boston Globe in 2006. "We can't put up a Wal-Mart. Or a housing development. The land always has to remain for agricultural and forest purposes."
  The selling of future development rights has enabled the Shakers to restore and maintain the structures of the village. They also make money by leasing 29 cottage lots on Sabbathday Lake, leasing 1,000 acres (400 ha) of forests, 30 acres (12 ha) of farmland and orchards and a gravel pit. Other income sources include production of fancy goods, basket making, weaving, printing, and the manufacturing of some small woodenware.  Their operation is run with the help of six year-round employees and six seasonal employees.
  On January 2, 2017, the community said that female community member, Sister Frances Carr had died that day. With Carr's death, Sister June Carpenter and Brother Arnold Hadd remained. The Spring/Summer 2019 issue of The Clarion, the Shakers' newsletter, makes reference to an additional Shaker in the community, Brother Andrew.
caption: Barns at Sabbathday Lake Village
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