Print, Photographic

Description

This snapshot is of a building at the Second Family, Mount Lebanon, NY, that was built in 1846, probably as a wood house, workshop, and wash house. Probably in the early 1920s, following a fire on December 28, 1923 that destroyed the Second Family chair factory, the building became the last Shaker chair factory. On the west side of the building (the back side of the view shown here) there are wooden louvers that allowed air to circulate through the fire wood that was stored there. Architecturally, this building is significant in that it has a cove-shaped plastered soffit and that detail, usually found running horizontally under the edge of the roof, extends up the rake of the gables. The sign, painted with white letters on a black background with the wording, "Remember 'Mother Ann' | Second Family Shakers | 'Hands to Work -- Hearts to God'," is in the Museum's collection (1962.13778.1).