1930s

Sheldon House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

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The Sheldon House on Old Main Street in Deerfield, on July 24, 1930. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library; photographed by Leon Abdalian.

The house in 2023:

The house shown in these two photos was built around 1754 as the home of John Sheldon III (1710-1793) and his wife Mercy Arms. John was the grandson of the first John Sheldon, who had built the famous “Old Indian House,” which survived the French and Native American raid on the town in 1704. This had occurred a few years before the younger John was born, but his newlywed parents had been in that house at the time of the raid. His father escaped safely, but his mother Hannah was captured and taken to Canada as a prisoner, although she was released several years later.

John and Mercy were married in 1734, and by the time they moved into this house they had three teenaged children: Mercy, Hannah, and John. Their son John Sheldon IV eventually inherited the property, and he likewise raised his family here after marrying Persis Hoyt in 1769. They had eight children, who were born between 1770 and 1794: David, William, John, Ephraim, Mercy, Persis, Seth, and Polly.

To accommodate this large and growing family, the Sheldons added a wing to the back of the house. However, tuberculosis soon swept through the family. Over the next five years John Sheldon IV died, as did his children William, Ephraim, Mercy, and Persis, all of whom were in their late teens or twenties. Their youngest child, Polly, also died young, in 1814 at the age of 19.

Having outlived most of his older siblings, their youngest son Seth eventually inherited this house. He married Caroline Stebbins in 1810, and they had five children, including George Sheldon, who would likewise go on to inherit the house. Throughout the 19th century, George Sheldon was a prominent figure in Deerfield. He served one term each in the state house of representatives and the state senate, but he is best remembered for his work as a historian. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and he wrote extensively about local history, including the two-volume A History of Deerfield Massachusetts.

George Sheldon died in 1916 at the age of 98. By that point, thanks in part of his efforts, Deerfield was becoming noteworthy for its history and for its well-preserved historic Main Street. The top photo was taken in 1930 by Leon Abdalian, who used his camera to document many historic homes in New England during the early 20th century. It was still owned by descendants of the Sheldon family at the time, and the photo shows some of the changes that had occurred to the house, including the bay window on the left side and the twin chimneys in place of the earlier central chimney. The Sheldon descendants eventually sold the house in 1946, nearly 200 years after John Sheldon built it.

Today, the house is one of the many historic homes on Main Street that has been preserved by Historic Deerfield. It has undergone some exterior restoration to bring it back to its 18th century appearance, including the replacement of the central chimney and the removal of the bay window. Overall, though, it is still easily recognizable from the top photo. On the interior, the house is furnished based on how it would have looked during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along with most of the other houses owned by Historic Deerfield, it is open to the public seasonally for tours.

Indian House Children’s Museum, Deerfield, Massachusetts

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The Indian House Children’s Museum on Old Main Street in Deerfield, on July 24, 1930. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library; photographed by Leon Abdalian.

The house in 2023:

This house was built in 1929 as a replica of the John Sheldon House, also known as the Old Indian House. The original house had been built in 1696, and it stood a little to the north of here, behind the modern-day First Church. It was a famous Deerfield landmark for having survived the 1704 French and Native American raid on the village.

Despite its historical significance, the old house was demolished in 1848, but its loss eventually spurred the construction of this replica more than 80 years later. It was built using traditional construction methods, and this site on Old Main Street was chosen in part because of the large elm tree on the left, which was similar to the elm that once stood in front of the original house.

The first photo was taken about a year after the replica house opened, and not much has changed here in this scene since then, aside from the loss of the elm tree, which likely fell victim to Dutch Elm Disease in the mid-20th century. The house itself is still here, and it is run by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association as the Indian House Children’s Museum.

Wash Room, Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, Massachusetts

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The wash room at the laundry and machine shop building at Hancock Shaker Village in 1931. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The room in 2023:

This room is located on the first floor of the laundry and machine shop at Hancock Shaker Village. It was here that women in the Shaker community would wash garments and other cloth items, which would then be brought upstairs to dry. From there, the dry clothes would be returned to the first floor, where other women would iron them in the adjacent ironing room.

Although today they are often conflated with the Amish, the Shakers were not opposed to technology. On the contrary, Shaker communities are generally credited with a number of important technological advances during the 19th century, including developing early washing machines. Part of this was because the communal nature of the Shaker villages. Because they all lived and worked together, they could take advantage of economies of scale and develop machinery that would not be practical for most individual families.

Here in Hancock, the laundry facilities were located on the west side of this building, which housed the machine shop on the east side. Both the laundry and the machine shop utilized the same water source, with a turbine that powered the machinery here. This made the laundry much more efficient than washing everything by hand, which helped keep up with the needs of the community that, during the mid-19th century, had several hundred members.

The first photo was taken in 1931, when the Shaker community was still active here. As shown in the photo, the floor of the room was marble, which slope upward at the walls. There are also several drain holes in the floor. The equipment in the first photo includes a washing machine in the distance against the far wall, which appears to have been powered by the water turbine via a belt.

The Shaker community here in Hancock ultimately closed in 1960 amid declining numbers, and many of the buildings have since been preserved Hancock Shaker Village, an open-air museum. The laundry and machine shop building is still standing, although the equipment here in the wash room is somewhat different from the first photo. This may have been done in order to interpret the room as it would have looked during an earlier time period, since most of the items here appear to date back to the 19th century. Overall, though, it is still easily recognizable from the first photo, and it provides a good illustration of how the Shakers utilized technology in order to meet the needs of their communities.

Ironing Room, Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, Massachusetts (2)

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The ironing room at the laundry and machine shop building at Hancock Shaker Village in 1931. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The scene in 2023:

As with the previous post, these two photos show the ironing room, which is located on the western side of the laundry/machine shop at Hancock Shaker Village. It is probably the oldest surviving building at the village, dating back to about the time that the Shakers settled here around 1790. For many years, this half of the building was the laundry facility for the Shaker community here, and it included a wash room and an ironing room on the first floor, and drying rooms on the upper floors.

This Shaker community ultimately closed in 1960, and the property was subsequently preserved as Hancock Shaker Village. This open-air museum features a number of historic buildings, including the laundry/machine shop, as shown here. The first photo was taken more than 90 years ago, when the site was still an active Shaker community, and since then there has been some restoration work to this room, including different furnishings and a different stove. Overall, though, it is still easily recognizable from the first photo, and the current layout shows the stoves where the irons were heated, as well as the large tables where articles of clothing and other cloth items were ironed.

Ironing Room, Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, Massachusetts

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The ironing room at the laundry and machine shop building at Hancock Shaker Village in 1931. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The room in 2023:

Life in a Shaker community was not for everyone, as it involved giving up personal property and living a celibate lifestyle in a communal setting where hard work was seen as a core value. However, those who joined the community did enjoy some practical benefits, particularly when it came to economies of scale. Because of their size, the Shakers could utilize larger, more efficient facilities than what a typical family of the time period had.

Here at the Shaker village in Hancock, Massachusetts, this included a large laundry facility, which occupied three stories on the western side of the laundry/machine shop building. This is probably the oldest surviving building at the village, with the original portion of the building—here on the western side—likely dating back to around the time that the community was established in 1790. It was probably originally a dwelling, but it was subsequently used as a laundry and as a machine shop. These two facilities shared the same building and water power source, but they were otherwise separate. In keeping with Shaker beliefs, men and women had separate workspaces, with the men working in the machine shop and the women here in the laundry.

On the ground floor, the laundry included two main rooms. One room was for washing, where the equipment was powered by a water turbine. From there, the laundry went upstairs to dry on drying racks, and then came back downstairs to this room, where it was ironed. Here, the clothing and other items were ironed on the large tables, using irons that were heated on the stoves in the room.

The Shaker community was still active when the first photo was taken in 1931, although its numbers were much smaller compared to a century earlier. They eventually closed in 1960, but the site subsequently became Hancock Shaker Village, an open-air museum. It features a number of restored Shaker buildings that are open to the public, including the laundry and machine shop, as shown here in the second photo.

Laundry and Machine Shop, Hancock, Massachusetts (2)

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The Laundry and Machine Shop at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, in 1939. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The building in 2023:

These two photos show the same building as the ones in the previous post, but from the opposite side of the building. This is probably the oldest surviving building at Hancock Shaker Village, dating back to about 1790, around the same time that the Shaker community was established here. It had a variety of uses over the years, but it was primarily a machine shop on the east side (in the foreground in this scene), and a laundry on the west side. These workspaces, like other aspects of Shaker society, were segregated by gender. As a result, while the two facilities shared the same building and water source, the men worked only in the machine shop, and the women in the laundry.

The Shaker community was still active when the first photo was taken in 1939, although its numbers were much smaller than they had been a century earlier. The community eventually closed in 1960, and in 1961 the property became Hancock Shaker Village, an open-air museum featuring many historic buildings, including this. Aside from a different paint color and the open area on the ground floor in the foreground, this building has not changed much in appearance since the first photo was taken.