Discover & Learn

The Cow Barn, 1858

The Shakers built this, their final and largest cow barn, in 1858. It measured 200 feet long and 45 feet wide, and housed over 100 cows. They constructed 25-foot ramps at either end of the barn, bringing the total length to 250 feet. It was located in the vicinity of an earlier barn that was constructed between 1801 and 1803.

Two silos were built inside the barn in 1894 and 1895, measuring 11x13 feet and 33 feet high. An 85-ton capacity "Green Mountain" silo, measuring 14x26 feet, was built at the northeast corner of the barn in 1900, then moved to the north center of the barn in 1907 and placed next to a new silo.

When the barn was consumed by fire in 1973, the fire also burned an attached south walk and toolshed, plus a nearby sheep barn (built in 1860) and a wood shed.

According to Scott T. Swank, “The loss of New Hampshire’s largest barn was a disaster for the state as well as the Shakers. However, the great fire rallied neighbors, friends, the new nonprofit board of trustees, and the State Historic Preservation Office into action that ultimately led to the preservation of Canterbury Shaker Village.”

Sources: David R. Starbuck, Neither Plain Nor Simple: New Perspectives on the Canterbury Shakers, and
Scott T. Swank, Shaker Life, Art, and Architecture.