[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2801 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2801
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess
the suitability and feasibility of designating the Canterbury Shaker
Village National Heritage Area, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 15, 2025
Ms. Hassan (for herself and Mr. Tillis) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess
the suitability and feasibility of designating the Canterbury Shaker
Village National Heritage Area, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Canterbury Shaker Village National
Heritage Area Study Authorization Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
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.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
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.
SEC. 4. CANTERBURY SHAKER VILLAGE NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA STUDY.
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''.
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