Built on the site of a former Shaker community, the Craig Colony for Epileptics was envisioned as a self-supporting institution when it opened in 1896. Inmates worked in the Shakers' existing farms and blacksmith shops; these new buildings were…
At this location near Sonyea, NY a community of Shakers settled in 1837 and grew to a size of perhaps 150. Later in the century, as their numbers declined, the 1,800-acre plot was purchased by the State Board of Charities and eventually named the…
Near the location of the Groveland Shaker Colony (1837-1892), and then the Craig Colony for Epileptics (1894-1988) was a tract of land sometimes called the "Big Woods." By the early 1960s, the de-institutionalization movement presaged closure of the…