The Spiritual Center

The Spiritual Center. Meeting House, 1820. , The Meeting House was the spiritual heart and center of the community upon its completion in 1820. Purpose-built to host the worship services of the Pleasant Hill Shakers, at times hundreds gathered within this space to sing, dance, and march in union., The spiritual leaders of the community, called the Ministry, occupied the second floor of the Meeting House. This governing body of four individuals, two men and two women, lived separate from the other Believers and worked in the Ministry's Workshop located to the east of this building., "Some times when they assembled at the Meeting House, as they came in, they was so full of the power of God that the Meeting House would tremble like an Earth quake...", - Samuel Turner, February 23, 1820 , Credit: Western Reserve Historical Society, "...There were about an hundred and thirty worshippers including both sexes, black and white. The females were drawn up in the west end of the Church in ranges of eight abreast and seven or eight deep. The men were drawn up in like manner in the opposite end; the two columns fronting each other, with a space of several feet between the head of each column.", - Richmond Inquirer, May 3, 1825, (Captions):, After 1896 the Meeting House was used as a dance hall, then an auto repair shop and finally as a Baptist Church. The original restoration of the building began in 1965 after the formation of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. , c. 1965, Shaker Sisters walking to the Meeting House in the later years of Pleasant Hill. Note the shuttered windows on the building. , c. Late 19th century., While the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists taught that dance in worship was of the devil, the Shakers danced in lines, circles, and squares with great fervor. , c. 1830 , Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division