In 2001, the Shaker Museum and Library decided to explore a daunting challenge: instead of pursuing plans to modernize and expand its existing museum campus, fashioned from a former dairy barn complex in the rolling farmland of Old Chatham NY, the trustees voted to undertake a feasibility study to acquire the nearby North family property at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon, NY, as the new site for the 50-year-old museum.
