Massachusetts

Shaker Meetinghouse, Hancock, Massachusetts

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The Meetinghouse at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, in June 1962. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The building in 2023:

This meetinghouse is part of Hancock Shaker Village, an open-air museum on the site of a former Shaker community. The Shakers first moved to this area in the 1780s and formally established the community here in 1790. It remained active until 1960, when it finally closed amid declining members, and it was subsequently preserved as a museum.

Most of the buildings here are original to this place, but the meetinghouse is one of the few exceptions. It was built in 1793 for a similar Shaker community in Shirley, Massachusetts, but it was moved to Hancock in 1962. The first photo shows the building soon after its move, when it was still in the process of being reassembled on its current site.

Here in Hancock, this meetinghouse from Shirley replaced one that had been demolished in 1938. That meetinghouse had been built in 1786 by Moses Johnson, the same builder who later built the Shirley one. Both buildings had similar designs, although the original Hancock one was later altered with a full second floor, while the Shirley one retained its gambrel roof.

The layout of both buildings included a large room on the ground floor. This is where the Shakers held their worship services, which included their distinctive group dancing. These meetings included both men and women, but they stayed in separate groups during the dancing and did not intermingle. Men and women even entered and exited the meetinghouse through separate doors, which is why there are two doors at the front of the building.

Today, the meetinghouse stands as one of the many historic buildings that have been preserved here at Hancock Shaker Village. Most of the village is on the south side of Route 20, but the meetinghouse is across the street on the north side, where it stands alongside several other buildings, including the Ministry Shop, which is visible in the distance on the right side of both photos.

Round Stone Barn, Hancock, Massachusetts (2)

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The Round Stone Barn at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, in June 1962. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The scene in 2023:

These two photos show a view that is similar to the ones in the previous post, just from a little further away from the barn. As explained in more detail in that post, this barn was built in 1826 for the Shaker community that lived here in Hancock and in nearby Pittsfield. The community was established in 1790, and it remained active until 1960, when the property was sold amid declining numbers of Shakers.

In 1961, Hancock Shaker Village acquired this property and preserved it as an open-air museum. However, by this point the distinctive round stone barn was in poor condition. As shown in the first photo, its walls were badly cracked and had to be supported with wooden braces The barn was ultimately restored in 1968 by dismantling the exterior stone walls, repairing the foundation, and then reconstructing the walls using the original stones. Today, the barn remains in good condition, and it is probably the most recognizable landmark here at Hancock Shaker Village.

Round Stone Barn, Hancock, Massachusetts

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The Round Stone Barn at Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, in June 1962. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The barn in 2023:

This barn is one of the most distinctive architectural landmarks in Berkshire County, and it forms the centerpiece of the Hancock Shaker Village, an open-air museum on the site of a former Shaker community. The Shakers were originally from England, but they came to America in the second half of the 18th century. They subsequently established a number of communities in the northeast and elsewhere in the United States, including this one, which was established in 1790 in the western Berkshires, on the border of Pittsfield and Hancock.

The Hancock Shaker community steadily grew during the first half of the 19th century, and in 1826 they built this large circular stone barn. It was designed for efficiency, with an interior layout that featured a series of concentric rings on the ground floor. At the center of the barn was a ventilation shaft, and the area around it was for hay storage. The outer ring was where the milk cows were kept, and they were separated from the hay by a circular walkway that allowed the Shakers to easily take hay from the center and feed the cows.

The upper floor was mostly open, except for a circular gallery that was accessible via a ramp on the other side of the building. Hay wagons could enter the barn, deposit hay into the central area of the barn, and then continue around the gallery to exit, without having to back up. The efficient design of the barn even extended to manure disposal. The outer ring of the ground floor had trap doors where manure could be shoveled. It would fall into the basement, where it could be collected with wagons via a ramp that descended into the basement from ground level on the outside of the barn.

The Shakers here in Hancock reached their peak by the mid-19th century, with about 300 members on 3,000 acres of land. However, their numbers steadily dwindled over the next century, before eventually closing in 1960. A year later, the property was preserved as the Hancock Shaker Village museum. By that point, however, the iconic barn was in poor condition, as shown in the first photo. The barn had been largely reconstructed after being heavily damaged by a fire in 1864, but by the 1960s it was again in need of major repairs. There were large cracks in the masonry walls, which had to be supported with wooden bracing.

The barn was ultimately restored in 1968. This project involved removing the masonry exterior walls, repairing the foundation, and then reconstructing the walls using the original stone. Now, more than 50 years after the restoration was completed, the barn is still standing. It looks far better than it did when the first photo was taken, and it remains an important part of the preserved Shaker village.

John Adams Birthplace, Quincy, Massachusetts (3)

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The birthplace of President John Adams at 133 Franklin Street in Quincy, on October 15, 1929. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library; photographed by Leon Abdalian.

The scene in 2019:

As with the photo in the previous post, the first one here was taken in October 1929 by Leon Abdalian, an amateur photographer whose works included a number of images of historic landmarks around the Boston area. He immigrated to the United States from Armenia as a child in 1896, and for many years he worked as a conductor for the Boston Elevated Railway, while also becoming an accomplished photographer. Assuming the date is correct, he took this photograph five days after the one in the previous post, and it features a similar angle of the John Adams birthplace, except this one is shown directly facing the front of the house, and without any costumed interpreters standing out front. Incidentally, this photo was taken exactly two weeks before “Black Tuesday,” the date of the stock market crash that would lead to the Great Depression.

By the time the first photo was taken, the house was already more than 200 years old. It was built in 1722, and John Adams was born here in 1735. It remained in his family until 1940, when it was sold to the city of Quincy, along with the neighboring John Quincy Adams birthplace. Both houses are now owned by the National Park Service, and they comprise part of the Adams National Historical Park, which also includes the Peacefield mansion elsewhere in Quincy. Not much has changed here with this house except for the exterior color. It was painted in the first photo, but now has unpainted clapboards, which likely better reflects the historic appearance of the house.

John Adams Birthplace, Quincy, Massachusetts (2)

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The birthplace of President John Adams at 133 Franklin Street in Quincy, on October 10, 1929. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library; photographed by Leon Abdalian.

The scene in 2019:

As explained in more detail in an earlier post, this house was the birthplace of John Adams, the second president of the United States. The house itself was built in 1722 as the home of the president’s father, Deacon John Adams. In 1734, he married Susanna Boylston, and a year later their son John Adams was born in the east bedroom on the second floor, in the corner of the house closest to the foreground. They would have two more children, Peter and Elihu, who were born over the course of the next few years.

Peter inherited this house after their father’s death in 1761, but the younger John Adams would apparently live here until 1764, when he married Abigail Smith and moved into the house next door, where their son and future president John Quincy Adams would be born in 1767. John later purchased his birthplace from his brother in 1774 and used it as a rental property, and then in 1803 sold both houses to John Quincy Adams. The Adams family would maintain ownership of both houses into the early 20th century, although they were rented to other tenants for most of this time.

By the time the first photo was taken, the birthplace was still owned by the Adams family, but was being operated as a museum by the Adams Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The photo was taken by Leon Abdalian, a photographer who extensively documented historic buildings in and around the Boston area during the early 20th century. His caption does not provide any additional information beyond the location and date, but it seems likely that the three costumed women in the foreground were likely DAR members who worked as guides at the house museum.

Both this house and the adjacent John Quincy Adams birthplace were eventually sold to the city of Quincy in 1940. Then, in 1978 they were transferred to the National Park Service, and they became part of the Adams National Historical Park, which also includes the Peacefield mansion where John Adams lived later in his life. Throughout this time, the birthplace has been well maintained, and today the only significant difference is the lack of paint on the exterior of the house, which was likely done in order to be more historically accurate. Together, these two houses are the only surviving birthplaces of the first eight presidents, and they are also the geographically closest of any two presidential birthplaces, as they stand just 75 feet from each other.

Derby House, Salem, Massachusetts

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The Derby House on Derby Street in Salem, probably sometime around the 1890-1910. Image courtesy of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Frank Cousins Glass Plate Negatives Collection.

The house in 2019:

As explained in more detail in an earlier post, this house was built in 1762 by merchant Richard Derby as a home for his son Elias Hasket Derby and his newlywed wife Elizabeth Crowninshield. It has a brick, Georgian-style exterior with a gambrel roof, and it is believed to have been designed and built at least in part by Joseph McIntire, who was paid 40 shillings for work on the house.

The house was located directly across the street from Derby Wharf, where Elias could keep a close eye on the family merchant business. During the American Revolution he invested in a number of privateers that preyed on British shipping, and in peacetime he became one of the first American merchants to trade with China and southeast Asia. His career coincided with Salem’s peak of prosperity as an international port, and he was among the wealthiest merchants in New England at the time, which would later earn him the moniker “King Derby” in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter.

Elias and Elizabeth Derby would live here in this house until the early years of the Revolution, but they apparently moved elsewhere by 1778. In 1782 they moved into a house at the corner of Washington and Lynde Streets, and then to another house in 1799 on the present-day site of the Old Town Hall. In the meantime, this house here on Derby Street was owned by a series of other merchants and sea captains, including Henry Prince and Henry Ropes.

Salem’s status as a major seaport steadily declined in the 19th century, especially after the Embargo Act of 1807 and the subsequent War of 1812. This was reflected in the changing ownership of the Derby House. By the 1870s it was owned by Daniel Leahy, an Irish immigrant who worked as a stevedore. The Leahy family would live here until around the turn of the 20th century, and they subsequently rented it to several different immigrant families. The first photo was taken at some point during this time period, probably around the 1890s or early 1900s.

By the early 20th century the house was recognized for its historical and architectural significance, and it was eventually purchased by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in 1927 and restored to its original appearance. Then in 1937 it was transferred to the National Park Service, and a year later it became a part of the newly-established Salem Maritime National Historic Site. The house is still a part of the National Historic Site more than 80 years later, and it stands as one of the many well-preserved historic homes from Salem’s heyday as a prosperous seaport.