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SOUTH UNION SHAKER VILLAGE
Auburn, Kentucky

www.southunionshakervillage.com

To expand their reach south and west, the Shakers moved to
Auburn in southern Kentucky in 1807 to establish a Shakertown they
called South Union.
Due to its location, South Union Shaker Village was inhabited by
American southerners — people from Kentucky, Tennessee, North
Carolina, and Virginia. Their southern influence can be seen in the
look and feel of South Union architecture, furniture, and fancy goods.
At its peak, this Shaker village was comprised of 225 buildings,
including massive dormitories, subsidiary shops and outbuildings,
barns and stables, a mill complex that was unequaled in the region, 350
members, and 6,000 acres of farmland land. Several influential figures
visited South Union during the 19th century, including President James
Monroe, General Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and Sam Houston.

conservation, excellence, and productivity also led them to improve the
quality of their livestock by importing bloodstock. They purchased a
bull from England in conjunction with Henry Clay and owned one of
America’s largest herds of registered Durham Shorthorn cattle. Pleasant
Hill became a leading agricultural experimental station.
As the Civil War began, the society felt the tension of a border state
where neighbors and families were divided over the issues of secession To supplement their
and slavery. The Shakers believed in the emancipation of the slaves, but income, the South Union
as pacifists, they refused to bear arms. Their Federal neighbors could Shakers produced and sold
not understand the Shakers’ pacifist views. Secessionists were equally their goods throughout the
intolerant of the Shakers, who offered African-Americans full South, showing off their
brotherhood in their community as early as 1811. ingenuity and entrepreneur-
ship. They purchased a small
printing press to mark their
seed bags for sale at market,
raised silkworms and used
their silk to weave handker-
chiefs and neckerchiefs, and
built a flatboat on the Red
River to be able to ship their
goods down the Mississippi
to New Orleans to market,
and in 1830 started large
scale cheesemaking. They
were also widely regarded for
their straw hats and bonnets and preserves made from their berry
garden. However, despite their economic success selling their goods,
Like other Shaker Villages in states across America, the Pleasant Hill declining membership and post-Civil War economic problems led to
community went into decline after the 1860s – a victim of changing the closing of the South Union community in 1922, making it the
social attitudes and the Industrial Revolution. After the Civil War, the Shaker’s longest-lived western Shaker community.
community’s population remained fairly stable at more than 300, and Anticipating their imminent closing, the South Union Shakers
the economy somewhat improved, but not for long. By 1886, the began to sell off the furniture, household items, textiles, and tools they
community was in debt, and its membership was composed of mostly had produced and used throughout the 19th century, culminating in a
the very young and very old. By 1910, Pleasant Hill was forced to close 1922 auction that attracted thousands and dispersed items from the life
its doors as an active religious society, and the land, buildings, and and lifestyle of the South Union Shaker settlement throughout the
furnishings passed into private hands and turned into a small country south. It was not until the late 1950s that collecting and re-uniting
town called “Shakertown.” In 1961, a private nonprofit organization, these now historic artifacts of South Union’s history and material
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, was founded to restore the historic culture became a preservation effort for Mrs. Curry Hall, who opened
property and turn it into “3,000 Acres of Discovery.” the first public Shaker Museum in 1960 with her own collection. When

30 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles