Property Description

Located within the Harvard Shaker Village Historic District is this impressive home completed in 1842 as both a dwelling for the Shaker trustees and office sisters, as well as an inn for visitors, a retail store and a gathering place. The property has been used by the current family as a primary residence since 1956. The layout includes four finished living levels plus a walk-up attic and a sub-basement for utilities. Remarkable built-in cabinets and pegboard, impeccably preserved, are found throughout the house and exemplify the fine craftsmanship and woodworking skills that the Shakers were renowned for.
In addition to the main living areas there is a light filled attached three season porch at second level height, with a three bay garage beneath. A spacious living room includes a fireplace and the rooms on the two main floors provide chimney access for the wood-burning stoves that the Shakers used to heat the house. There are numerous bedrooms, two full and two half baths, and a plethora of rooms that can serve any function imaginable—a home office, a studio, playroom, home gym, a workshop and even a dedicated room for ping pong. The house is set on
2.3 acres on a quiet residential street with other well preserved Shaker homes. Come discover quality of community and place in the Town of Harvard—plentiful conserved public lands, fine schools, a pond with swimming and boating, access to highway and rail, a quaint town center and a wonderful sense of community.

Property History

In the center of the Shaker Village stands a tall, impressive three and a half story building that was built to serve multiple functions for the Harvard Shaker Church Family. The
construction was overseen by a non-Shaker,
Ellis Harlow of Shirley, Massachusetts whose job was to erect the frame and oversee construction. He was a master builder with a keen eye for detail. The Shaker community both in
Harvard and in Shirley were engaged in much of the actual construction work, including digging the cellar hole, helping raise the frame, and the elders of the church were engaged in setting the glass panes in their multitude of frames and glazing them. With this combination of Shaker and outside labor, the building envelope was complete in May of 1842, a little over a year from the start of construction.
The Shaker community used the building from its dedication in March of 1842 until many of the Shaker buildings were sold to Fiske Warren in 1918. During this period, the buildings remained mostly dormant.
The building was sold from Fiske Warren’s estate in 1941 to Robert and Barbara Paine, after they leased the property for 5 years and used it as a summer house. The Paine’s made some modifications to the house after hiring architect S. Bruce Elwell of Boston, who proposed and oversaw the addition of three baths, a kitchen and installed a fireplace in the right front parlor and removed one internal wall to enlarge that room. The property was subsequently sold to the current family in 1956, who began raising their family there. The Finkelpearls added central heat and remodeled the fireplace installed by the Paine family with the help of friend and renowned architect Robert Venturi, who helped integrate the fireplace with the Shaker sensibility. It was occupied until
Katherine Finkelpearl passed away at age 99 in 2024.
Like many of the Shaker buildings, the New Shaker Office as it is known, has served many uses; first as a communal dwelling, store and office, then a summer home, and finishing as a year round residence. The other large building in the Harvard Shaker Village is the South Shaker Dormitory circa 1846, bearing a similar resemblance to the New Shaker office, having been built by the same master builder Ellis Harlow, and currently used as a large multigenerational family
homestead.