This remarkable five-story building was home to nearly one hundred Shaker Sisters and Brethren in the 1830s and 1840s. Designed by a Shaker Brother in 1830, it contains many features which testify to Shaker ingenuity and efficiency and the society's communal lifestyle. On the upper floors, one side mirrors the other, as Shaker men and women lived on separate sides of the buildings. These late 18th-century buildings were once of the hub of domestic industries and trades. Today staff and volunteers reproduce Shaker chairs, oval boxes, baskets and brooms in the Brethren's Shop and rag carpets, linen towels and other textiles on the second floor of the Sisters' Dairy and Weave Shop.
Visitors help make cheese and butter on the first floor.
This unique structure was built to house the Shakers' dairy herd. Its circular design promoted efficiency in milking, feeding, cleaning and hay storage. Cows were stanchioned in a circle, radiating out from a central hay mow, which could be accessed on the upper level by hay wagons. Walkways ring the building in front of and behind the stanchions, expediting feeding and milking. Trap doors placed at intervals behind the stanchions allowed manure to be shoveled into the lower pit, which also could be accessed by wagons from the outside of the bulding.