Order in Everything

It comes as no surprise that the Shakers, who were so fastidious about order and practicality, would invoke those same ideals when designing and planning their communities.  The main buildings at Pleasant Hill were built perpendicular to each other with those used as communal dwellings oriented to maximize the southern exposure. 

In ENCOUNTERING THE SHAKERS OF THE NORTH FAMILY LOT, UNION VILLAGE, OHIO: A Clean and Lively Appearance—Landscape andArchitecture of the North Family Lot, commissioned for the Ohio Department of Transportation in 2009 the authors compare Pleasant Hill with the the Ohio Shaker community called Union Village.

At Pleasant Hill, an evolution took place in the architectural style.  Early buildings dating to ca. 1810 have the typical horizontal proportions and the small, boxy, widely spaced windows  of the Western Shaker vernacular. While shop buildings continued to be constructed in this style at Pleasant Hill, subtle high-style Federal influence appeared in the communal dwellings at an early date. Several communal houses built from 1816 to 1822 at Pleasant Hill have tall, vertical, closely spaced windows, giving the houses more of the feel of the high style Federal aesthetic.

By 1824, Micajah Burnett, a Shaker builder and engineer at Pleasant Hill, was experimenting  with Federal architectural forms that included high-style Adamesque elements. Pleasant Hill shop buildings continued to be built in a plain, conservative style with small widely spaced windows well into the 1840s. At the same time, Burnett’s designs for dwellings took on more grand and worldly Federal architectural features. Pleasant Hill buildings with these features include the fourth Center Family House (1824–1834) and the Trustees’ Office (1839–1841). These two buildings have features like arched and three-part windows, mullioned fanlights, sidelights, balustrades, interior barrel vaults, and other graceful ornamental features typical of the Federal style.

Early map of Pleasant Hill (view, download, and zoom in at the LOC site)