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Tour the Site

Discover the Church Family

Get to know the settlement

The architecture of the Watervliet Shaker settlement reflects the scale of their agricultural industries and the patterns of their daily lives. Workshops were constructed for the development and sale of herbal medicines and vegetable seeds, production of canned fruits and vegetables, and the manufacture of brooms. Dwelling Houses and the Meeting House provided communal living quarters for sleep, meals, and worship.

At one point Watervliet had a total of 150 buildings distributed among the four Shaker families.

Their original settlement was on land that is now the site of the Albany International Airport.

Site Evolution

Explore the development of the settlement during the Shaker years and as a historic district

1789

Ann Lee and her followers began to turn the leased land into a productive property

1838

Occupation of the settlement at its peak, based on the Buckingham Map

1925

Albany County purchased the property and surveiled the Shaker structures

2022

The Church Family site today with all the surviving Shaker buildings