{"nrhp_refnum":"76000271","name":"Shirley Shaker Village","other_names":["Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Shirley"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"S of Shirley on Harvard Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Shirley","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.52453550000004,"lon":-71.65170653211803,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["European","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of Shaker buildings on Harvard Road in Shirley and the northern edge of Lancaster, Massachusetts, founded in 1793 and now part of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Shirley. It holds nineteen buildings, fourteen of them from the original Shaker village.","why_significant":"The district is significant as one of the surviving New England settlements of the Shaker faith. The community began in 1793 on land donated by four local citizens and grew to about 150 residents by 1853. It was dissolved in 1908, and the state then used the site as an Industrial School for Boys.","narrative":"Shirley Shaker Village occupies land on both sides of Harvard Road in Shirley and northern Lancaster, Massachusetts. The Shaker community began there in 1793 on land given by four local citizens. Forty-four adult members signed the Shirley Covenant in 1797, and by 1853 about 150 people lived in the village, organized into North, Church and South Families. Applesauce was the main industry, alongside broom-making, mops, jellies, herbs and garden seed. The society dissolved in 1908, and the Commonwealth bought the property for an Industrial School for Boys, which moved and altered several buildings. Nineteen buildings remain in the district, fourteen from the original village of twenty-six structures. They include brick and clapboard buildings, among them the Administration Building, the North Family Office and the North Family Farmhouse. The village is valued as a surviving example of New England Shaker settlement, and it is now part of a state correctional complex.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Four buildings (#12, #11, #5 and #4) serve as residences for correctional personnel; the other Shaker buildings are unoccupied. The district is used as a pre-release correctional facility, and the Department of Correction hopes to restore the buildings.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.540459-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/47/7960/63796047/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76000271.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000271/40974bb07a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000271/40974bb07a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ministry_Shop,_Shirley_Shaker_Village_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ministry_Shop,_Shirley_Shaker_Village_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796047","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Shaker_Village","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7498844"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/shirley-shaker-village-76000271/"}