Discover & Learn

The Bee House, 1837

The Shakers originally constructed the Bee House in 1837, 400 feet to the east of its present site. It was used as a drying house, first for apples and later for lumber. Elder Henry Blinn changed it to a house for the beekeepers in 1865. It measures 12x25 feet and was built with a ventilator atop its gable roof.

The Shakers moved it to its present location in 1940, and in 1977 the museum added a concrete ramp on the south side and cut a second door into the east side.

Today the building is used for seasonal programs and exhibits.

Source: David R. Starbuck, Neither Plain Nor Simple: New Perspectives on the Canterbury Shakers