Photograph, Cabinet

Description

View of what was called "The Springs Road" (now Darrow Road) showing the North Family, Mount Lebanon Sisters' Workshop (1852) on the right with the North Family's Upper or First Dwelling (1818) next to it. Further on, the buildings -- the First Meetinghouse (1785), the Second Meetinghouse (1824) and Dwelling (1875) -- of the Church Family are visible. The building on the left was a Fruit House (1866) built after the plan of the Nyce Patent Fruit House (US Letters Patent 21977, November 2, 1858). It contained an ice house on the upper level with a "sealed" -- lined with tin sheets with soldered joints -- storeroom below for fruit. Nyce's theory was that in keeping oxygen exchange to a minimum and using a calcium chloride paste to absorb moisture, fruit would keep longer. The two women on the east side of the road are not Shakers, however, there is an unidentified Shaker sister standing behind the picket fence at the southeast corner of the Sisters' Workshop.