1995 | Amy Bess Miller in her office at Hancock Shaker Village
Powerhouse. Demure demeanor and iron will. This is how Amy Bess Miller (1912-2003), founder and first president of Hancock Shaker Village, is remembered for her extraordinary effort to preserve the City of Peace as a living history museum. By many accounts, she saved the Village from certain destruction in 1960, when competitive bids for the property were placed by a youth correctional facility, the Pittsfield Airport, and a horseracing outfit with mafia connections that proposed to raze the entire campus except the iconic Round Stone Barn.
An intrepid and steadfast leader, Amy Bess and her husband Lawrence K. “Pete” Miller (1907-1991) struck an agreement with the Shaker Ministry in Canterbury, NH, to secure the future of Hancock Shaker Village in perpetuity. Together, they created a captivating setting to engage ideas and artifacts of the Shakers in a way that “breathes the spirit of the original culture.”
Amy Bess Miller served as president of Hancock Shaker Village from 1960 - 1991, and she continued to be an active presence at the Village until the early-2000s.