5 mi. S of Pittsfield on U.S. 20, Hancock Tpke., Hancock, Massachusetts. County/parish: Berkshire.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places November 24, 1968. NRIS 68000037.
19 contributing buildings. 1 contributing site. 1 contributing structure.
Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker commune in Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It emerged in the towns of Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond in the 1780s, organized in 1790, and was active until 1960. It was the third of nineteen major Shaker villages established between 1774 and 1836 in New York, New England, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. From 1790 until 1893, Hancock was the seat of the Hancock Bishopric, which oversaw two additional Shaker communes in Tyringham, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut.
The village was closed by the Shakers in 1960, and sold to a local group who formed an independent non-profit. This organization now operates the property as an open-air museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1968.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793649