To a green bench in a green shade

Bench, North Family, Mount Lebanon, NY, 1914, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon: 1971.17371.1.

This bench was made to be used outdoors; was painted dark green, a traditional color for outdoor furniture; and was once placed between the North Family Dwelling House and the family’s Wood House/Wash House. On the upper back rail is carved “August | North Family Shakers | 1914.” If there was an event to memorialize on that date, it hasn’t come to light yet.

Postcard, Brother William Perkins, Second Family, Mount Lebanon, NY, ca. 1910, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon: 1957.9505.1, photographer unidentified.

The bench was likely made by Brother William H. Perkins, an immigrant from England, who, although usually associated with the Second Family at Mount Lebanon, was a member of the North Family from June 4, 1914, until he moved to the Second Family on March 31, 1915. The bench certainly fits nicely into his tenure as a North Family brother. Prior to becoming a Shaker, Perkins was a trained wood carver by trade. The bench is made of oak rather than the white pine that would have been the natural choice of New Englanders. An Englishman, on the other hand, would consider oak the traditional wood for this kind of project. The bench was painted over at some point in its post-Shaker life with dark green high-gloss paint. Underneath is a single coat of dark green, applied much more sparingly.

Photograph, Sister Sadie Maynard Standing behind a Bench, North Family, Mount Lebanon, NY, ca. 1940, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon: 1996.5.1, photographer unidentified.

A photograph in the Museum’s collection shows the bench in the dooryard just west of the family Dwelling House. Standing behind the bench is Sister Sadie Maynard. Sister Sadie arrived at the North Family on July 24, 1918, from the Harvard, MA, Shaker community where she had lived since joining the Shakers in 1899. She was one of the last six sisters to live at that community before it closed and she moved to the North Family at Mount Lebanon. She remained at Mount Lebanon until that community also closed and she was one of seven remaining Shakers moved to Hancock, MA. She died there in 1953.