In 1776, the Shakers founded their first community at Niskayuna (now Watervliet) near Albany, N.Y. There, rejecting the ideas of personal property and predestination, they followed Mother Ann's teaching: "Hands to work, hearts to God." Visitors to Shaker revival meetings spread the word, and other Shaker communities were begun throughout New England.

During the early years of the 19th century, the Shaker movement spread westward through upstate New York, Ohio and Kentucky. In 1826, a small Shaker community was founded at Sodus, N.Y., on a broad bay of Lake Ontario graced with rich soil and protected from unseasonable frosts. The announcement of a proposed canal through Shaker lands alarmed the Believers (who preferred to live apart from "The World"), and they sold their property to the canal company in 1836.

The next year, the Society purchased more than 1600 acres in the Town of Groveland in Livingston County, at a site the Native Americans called "Sonyea," or "The open spot where the sun shines in." This was far from the worldly influences of the proposed (but never developed) canal back at Sodus. Ironically, within a short time, "The World" floated right past the Shakers on mule-hauled boats as the Genesee Valley Canal was constructed along the edge of the new Sonyea colony.

At Sonyea, the Shakers developed a community of some 30 buildings, including a meeting house, mills, shops, barns and residences. But in 1892, the Sonyea colony, reduced in numbers, closed its doors and its members moved to the Shaker community at Watervliet, N.Y. New York State purchased the vacated property to be use it as a center for the treatment of epilepsy. In 1984, the New York State Correctional Department took over most of the old Shaker settlement, at which time Genesee Country Village & Museum acquired the Trustees' Building.

The structure at the left in this old engraving of the Shaker colony at Sonyea is the Trustees' Building, one of the first to be built when the Shakers moved to the new site in 1837. For half a century, the building was the headquarters and residence of the colony's officials, both male and female. A kitchen and dining room were on the ground floor; the top floor served as an infirmary. In the office and store on the first floor, the Shakers conducted their business with "The World."

On the first floor of the restored building, a Shaker "store" has been replicated, based on illustrations accompanying 19th-century magazine articles about the Shakers. Other rooms contain excellent examples of Shaker-made furniture and artifacts. On the grounds, is a vegetable and medicinal herb garden with plants similar to those propagated by the Shakers for their seed business.