This a fascinating 3-4 hour visit. It begins in the Visitor Education Center and the visit is conducted by a series of tours. The first tour, The Shaker Story (one hour), introduces you to the Shakers and an overview of how they lived. It takes you to the Meeting House, laundry and the school, giving you insight into the religion and the technological advances of the sect. Two other tours, the Shaker Home tour (45 minutes) and the Shaker Work Tour (one hour) continue the experience. The site is fairly compact, but it contains approximately 30 buildings, most of which are open to the public. The site also features a museum store with Shaker-inspired products, some of which were made on the site, and a restaurant.
As brief background, the Shakers were formed in England from a combination of influences: the charismatic movement in the Anglican church, French Huguenot and Quakerism. When the original founders passed away, the movement had grown to about 300 members and their adopted daughter became the head of the sect. Having come from an poor background, she decided that part of church doctrine should be celibacy. The immediate effect was the loss of membership.
Regardless, it still attracted adherents and several colonies were established in the United States. Celibacy meant the separation of sexes. On your tour of Canterbury, you will notice that buildings have doors and staircases for each sex. A married couple could join the sect, but would be separated and have to live apart. The name Shaker comes from the vigorous celebration of their faith... dancing in concentric circles . . . a circle of men, a circle of women, a circle of men etc., moving in opposite directions.
The population at Canterbury finally died out, and in fact, we were told that there were only four Shakers left in a small colony in Maine.