A Chosen Family

A Chosen Family. The Centre Family Dwelling, 1824-1834. , The Centre Family Dwelling was home to the largest "spiritual family" at Pleasant Hill. Rather than living with biological family members, Shaker men and women lived as brothers and sisters in Christ. Each spiritual family was comprised of adult men and women who were assigned to quarters on separate sides of the building. The Centre Family brothers lived on the east side of the house, and the sisters on the west., Leaders from each gender, known as Elders and Eldresses, served as heads of the household and were entrusted with the temporal and spiritual well-being of the brothers and sisters. Within each family everything was shared, including meals, labor and worship., "Those who receive faith in the true gospel of Christ and set out to obey it, soon feel the necessity of dissolving their former ties and connections with the world, and separating themselves from them, and being associated and united together in the bonds of union and fellowship separate from the world...", - Pleasant Hill, Church Record Book A, (Captions):, Background image: The Centre Family Dwelling was constructed between 1824 and 1834 and has over 21,000 square feet of interior space. , c. Late 19th Century, For a brief period, beginning in 1940, a Shaker Museum was operated out of the Centre Family Dwelling. , c. 1940 , Credit: Clay Lancaster, Although pictured here beside the Centre Family Dwelling, children in Shaker communities belonged to "Children's Orders," and lived separate from adults. , c. Mid-Late 19th Century , Credit: United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine