Watervliet Shaker Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Seven miles northwest of Albany in Colonie, this district preserves the site of the first Shaker settlement in the United States. Mother Ann Lee and seven followers arrived in 1774 and bought land in a swampy forest, which the Shakers gradually drained, creating the Mill Pond. The district takes in three clusters of buildings, the Church, South and West Families, with twenty-two buildings in all, most built in the nineteenth century in brick or frame. The community prospered in the early 1800s through garden seeds and corn brooms, and a large three-and-a-half story broom shop at the West Family reflects that trade. Inventions such as an improved broom-handle lathe are credited to Watervliet. The Shakers left the West Family in 1915 and sold the Church Family property to the State in 1926. The South Family stayed in Shaker hands until 1938. An amended boundary adds Stump Pond, a roughly seven-acre pond that supplied ice, and traces of a Shaker water pipe network. Archeological sites of demolished buildings lie throughout the district.