Description: Dated July 1937, this photograph shows the central street of Union Village, also referred to as Shakertown. The first building on the left appears to be Marble Hall. A note on the photograph's reverse reads "View of the central group of buildings at the old Shaker settlement, 3 miles east of Lebanon, Ohio, formerly known as Union Village and commonly as Shakertown. Now the Otterbein Home, conducted for the aged and the orphans of the United Brethren Church. The entire tract of 4,500 acres formerly belonging to the Shakers is now know as Shaker Acres." Union Village was the first, and largest, Shaker community west of the Allegheny Mountains, and was established in 1805. By the 1940's, Union Village was the second largest Shaker settlement with a population of 700. The village was disbanded in 1912 and the last building was demolished in 1965. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F07_017_001
Subjects: Warren County (Ohio); Shakers--Ohio--Union Village--Pictorial works; Shakers--North Union (Ohio); Religion in Ohio; Historical societies
Places: Union Village (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio)