told me curtly 'it was locked up.' The empty fields, the big trees—how I would love to explore those houses and listen to that silence. In spite of the general decay and despair there is joy there still and simplicity ... Shakers fascinate me. Others shared his interest. In 1961, a group of Lexington-area citizens led by Joseph Graves and Earl D. Wallace launched an effort to restore the property. By 1964 the Friends of Pleasant Hill had organized a non-profit corporation, raised funds for operating expenses, and secured a $2 million federal loan to purchase and restore the site. James Lowry Cogar, a former Woodford County resident and first curator of Colonial Williamsburg, was recruited to oversee the complex preservation project. Today, with 34 original 19th-century buildings and 2,800 acres (1100 hectares) of farmland, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill claims to be "the largest historic community of its kind in America." Gallery See also Shakers Shaker Museum at South Union, Kentucky Lucy Wright Isaac N. Youngs Canterbury Shaker Village, New Hampshire Enfield Shaker Museum, New Hampshire Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, New York Fruitlands, Massachusetts Open-air museum Shaker Seed Company References External links Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (Official site) Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill at American Byways National Register of Historic Places site Shaker music discoveries Further reading Clark, Thomas D. and F. Gerald Ham. Pleasant Hill and Its Shakers, 2nd edition. Harrodsburg, Kentucky: Pleasant Hill Press, 1968, 1983. Hall, Roger L. Give Good Gifts - Shaker Music in the 20th Century, Stoughton, Massachusetts, PineTree Press, 2015. Ham, F. Gerald. "Pleasant Hill - A Century of Kentucky Shakerism 1805-1910." Thesis. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky. 1955 Kelly, Andrew. "Kentucky by Design: The Decorative Arts and American Culture". Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Lancaster, Clay. Pleasant Hill: Shaker Canaan in Kentucky, an Architectural and Social Study. Warwick Publications. 2001. Marsich, David. "'And Shall thy Flowers Cease to Bloom?': The Shakers' Struggle to Preserve Pleasant Hill, 1862-1910," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society Volume 109, Nos. 1, Winter 2011 pp. 3–26 in Project MUSE Thomas Merton and Paul M. Pearson, editor. Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2003. . Neal, Julia, "The Kentucky Shakers." Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. 1977. Rhorer, Marc A. "Believers in Dixie: A Cultural Geography of the Kentucky Shakers." Dissertation. Boca Raton, FL: Florida