PITTSFIELD, Mass. – This weekend, the Hancock Shaker Village is opening never-before-seen ruins of the Pittsfield Shaker settlement to the public.

“This was the ‘south family,’” said director Jennifer Trainer Thompson. “So it’s south of the historic village, deep in the woods, and it was where new believers would live for up to a year, to sort of check out Shakerism and see how they felt about it.” 

The ruins lie at the end of a brand new hiking trail on the village’s property. They include the remains of a massive, three level stone barn which may date back hundreds of years. 

“The work that went into it was just astronomical for that period of time,” said farming and facilities manager, Bill Mangiardi.

Mangiardi was the one who lead the effort to uncover the site. It’s taken him and a team of volunteers months to create the new trail, and clear out the dense forest growth.

“The only way you could possibly see it was in the winter, when the leaves, the foliage was off,” said Mangiardi. “About 10 years ago, I found some of it, and I kept coming back and finding more and more. Little by little, we opened it up.”

For Thompson and the rest of the Village’s staff, not only is it exciting to be able to offer another site for people to visit, but the ruins and artifacts found here will help them get a better picture of how the shakers lived.

“Every time you find a new piece of information, it’s like pulling a thread that unravels more,” said Thompson. “It helps us to understand even more about the story about the Shakers in this region.”

The trail opens to the public this Saturday, starting with a grand opening ceremony at 10 a.m., and followed by a talk on the history of the settlement at 1 p.m.