Canterbury Shaker Village National Heritage Area Study Authorization Act

This Act may be cited as the “Canterbury Shaker Village National Heritage Area Study Authorization Act”.

Congress finds that—

(1) Canterbury Shaker Village, which was established in 1792, has played a prominent role in the history of the United Society of Believers, commonly known as the “Shakers”, which was the longest-lived and most successful of the several utopian experiments of the 19th century in the United States;

(2) the advent and growth of the Shaker movement was a significant component of a transformational religious and social fervor in the United States—

(A) which is known as the “Second Great Awakening”; and

(B) that led to the development of a number of churches and sects that diversified and enriched the society of the United States;

(3) the Shakers—

(A) were a communal and celibate religious group that saw work, music, and dance as worship;

(B) practiced equality of the sexes, pacifism, and technological invention; and

(C) by withdrawing from the larger society, developed a refined and aesthetically significant expression of architecture, decorative arts, and utilitarian objects that are now known and studied throughout the world;

(4) Canterbury Shaker Village played an increasingly important role in the Shaker movement, eventually becoming the home of the Shaker Central Ministry, which supervised the consolidation at Canterbury Shaker Village of other Shaker settlements as the other settlements declined and closed during the 20th century, preserving and distilling remnants of the societies at a single site;

(5) Canterbury Shaker Village was the only Shaker community to deliberately transform the community from a religious society to a nonprofit museum, Canterbury Shaker Village, Inc., to which, in 1969, Canterbury Shaker Village conveyed the land, buildings, furnishings, and archives of Canterbury Shaker Village as an intact legacy;

(6) in 1992, in recognition of the historical significance and physical integrity of Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury Shaker Village was designated as a National Historic Landmark;

(7) as of the date of enactment of this Act, Canterbury Shaker Village includes—

(A) approximately 700 acres of land;

(B) 25 buildings; and

(C) extensive and verified archaeological resources, gardens, orchards, a community cemetery, miles of roadways, stone culverts and walls, and a chain of manmade ponds that have powered a range of industries, including some industries that derived from the inventions of the Shakers; and

(8) Canterbury Shaker Village has been the beneficiary of years of concentrated surveying, mapping, photographic recordation, archaeological investigation, and documentary research and writing that—

(A) reflect a fascination on the part of the outside world with Canterbury Shaker Village that began in the early 1800s;

(B) are scholarly and popular in nature; and

(C) have defined a cultural landscape and a historical legacy that is of national significance and high educational and aesthetic value to the people of the United States.

In this Act:

(1) Secretary.— The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Interior.

(2) State.— The term State means the State of New Hampshire.

(3) Study area.— The term study area means the geographic boundaries of the Canterbury Shaker Village National Historic Landmark located in Merrimack County, New Hampshire.

The Secretary, in consultation with State and local historic preservation officers, State and local historical societies, State and local tourism offices, and other appropriate organizations and governmental agencies and in accordance with section 120103(a) of title 54, United States Code, shall conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating the study area as a National Heritage Area, to be known as the “Canterbury Shaker Village National Heritage Area”.