Watervliet Shaker Historic District

Seven miles northwest of Albany, in Colonie, this district preserves three clusters of buildings from the first Shaker settlement in the United States: the Church, South and West Families. Mother Ann Lee and seven followers reached New York in 1774 and settled on swampy land that the community gradually drained, creating the Mill Pond. Her burial place is in the district's cemetery. The Shakers here built a prosperous economy on garden seeds and corn brooms, and a large broom shop at the West Family reflects that production. By the mid-1800s they owned 3,000 acres and about 150 buildings. The surviving brick and frame structures, dating from roughly 1820 to 1920, still show the family layout, with buildings grouped at right angles like a college quadrangle. The West Family buildings remain the most architecturally pure, while the Church Family buildings were altered after the State bought them in 1926. Archeological sites of vanished mills and shops also lie within the boundaries.