The northernmost of Harvard’s three Shaker Villages, the Harvard Shaker Village Historic District is in the northeast corner of the town. Designated a historic district in 1972, the well-preserved village includes fifteen contributing buildings, eleven sites, five structures and nine non-contributing buildings.

The second Shaker community in the United States and the first in Massachusetts, the settlement began informally in 1781 with the arrival of Mother Anne Lee at Harvard and was formally established a decade later. It reached its peak between 1825 and 1849 with as many as 188 members living in four “families” and remained in existence until 1918.

The district is approximately 155 acres in size and consists of buildings and sites carefully sited along two roads, essentially at right angles to one another. The Shakers reshaped the world around them to create a “heaven on earth” digging canals to transform marshland into agricultural fields and manipulating the landscape to create outdoor religious spaces, including the Holy Hill of Zion, an outdoor area of worship.

Most of the structures within the district are of frame construction and clapboard sheathed. Built between 1800 and 1850, they reflect the Shaker commitment to order, efficiency, and functionalism with stylistic detail kept to a minimum. Like other Shaker communities, major structures (meetinghouse, office, primary elders dwelling) are at the center of the Church Family complex.

Other dwellings, including dormitories and shops are sited along the road and service structures, including barns, are located behind. Significant buildings include the Meetinghouse built in 1791 as the center of social and religious interaction and the New Office built in the 1840s.

At the height of their popularity, the Harvard Shakers’ landholdings totaled more than 2,000 acres. Following the Civil War, when the population plummeted, they were forced to begin selling properties. The preservationist Clara Endicott Sears purchased the community’s first office building, built in 1794, and moved it to her summer home property on Prospect Hill Road. Here she established Fruitlands Museum, now operated by The Trustees, where it remains open to the public.