Feel the human hand at HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE

The western Massachusetts area known as the Berkshires is home to dozens of summer music festivals, art museums, and trendy restaurants.

- David Heim

It’s also where you’ll find Hancock Shaker Village, a carefully curated living museum that offers an in-depth look at how the Shakers lived, worked, and worshiped (see sidebar, p. 33). Anyone who loves finely crafted furniture, beautiful cabinets, and graceful oval boxes will enjoy a day here.

Don’t expect to see actors recreating activities from a century and a half in the past. The Shakers themselves left in 1959 and sold the property to an organization that turned it into a museum. Docents in the main buildings answer visitors’ questions and give brief informative talks about the Shakers’ daily routines, philosophy, and worship.