Abode

Facilities

Meeting Facilities at The Abode

(See up-to-date information about dates available for facilities rental)

Our complex of historic Shaker buildings includes rooms for short term rental, a hall for gatherings of up to 85 participants, and a secluded campground conference center capable of hosting up to two hundred guests in tents, hermitage huts and cabins. Groups who rent our facilities may elect for total self-structuring concerning use of the facility or avail themselves of our experienced staff of cooks and hosts.
Meditation Hall
Meditation Hall (Meeting Space, Guest Rooms)
 
At the main complex is our Meditation Hall used by groups as a meeting place and fully equipped with a sound system.
Rezak - Meeting Space
Rezak Building (Dining Room, Library, Private Residence)

Groups meeting at the main complex (above) will be served food in the Rezak dining hall (left). The dining hall can seat up to eighty people at a time. In the summer outdoor tables are available. The second floor library is ideal for small meetings, comfortably appointed with armchairs and sofas. Additional chairs are available for this meeting room. We can also provide a Stereo System for recording or sound. Resident and guestrooms with shared toilet facilities for men and women are housed on the top floors; several guestrooms have double beds.

Our Mountain Conference Center:

Guests are invited to gather during warmer weather in our large platform tent. We provide basic equipment for sound, CD or cassette players, and recording services. The tent is wired with basic lighting during evening gatherings.
Main Meeting Platform
Main Meeting Platform
 
 
The Mountain Retreat Center at the Abode

The Mountain Retreat Center is situated on our beautiful, pristine mountainside. The area is known to have been sacred to the Shaker community that once lived here and the Native Americans before them.

Visitors can feel the presence of our honored ancestors as well as that of the ongoing inspired events currently taking place on the mountain.  Nestled in the woods are several huts especially suited for individual retreats.

While the big tent (40' by 60', platform 50' by 60') marks one end of the property, at the other end you will find the foundation of our Mountain sanctuary. In addition to the big tent, there are also smaller tents which can be erected according to the needs of the group.

 

 

Kitchen and Meals

    The kitchen is an exquisitely shaped wooden octagon. Groups may bring their own cooks and staff or may contract with us for food services. Our usual diet is organic vegetarian, however, your needs can be met by         our experienced staff.

 

The dining area is an "eat-in-the rough" style roofed place surrounded by a big open space. In addition, there is an 1500 square foot roofed simple shed to be used as café and meeting room. There is always a maintenance person on-site to help with emergencies.

 

 

Accommodations

The Mountain Retreat space is designed to enable gatherings in an intimate proximity with nature.

Over the years, an untold numbers of people have lovingly volunteered time and energy to create this extraordinary mountaintop. Trails meander through the woods leading to tent sites, cabins and small, cozy huts nestled in the woods. Sliding glass doors and skylights in the huts allow the boundaries between shelter and nature to merge.  The Mountain Retreat Center can accommodate up to 250 people, 35 in two cabins, 18 in 16 huts and up to 200 people in tents. Accommodations are simple, but appropriate.

 

Quotes from our regular guests

"Every spring for the past 5 years I look forward to our time on the mountain top site at the Abode. The big tent feels glorious as the sun pours through the tall trees and the wind pushes gently at the sides. We raise the tent flaps and we're in heaven. Graciously served by the Abode staff, our training flows into the natural rhythm. We'll keep coming back."
Bill Kauth, Human Development Associates (HDA), Inc. Warrior-Monk Training Intensive

"Each year we sponsor a Sacred Circle Dance camp on the Mountain for about one hundred people. The kitchen, which is an open octagon, is adored by our cooks and, indeed, is one of the most popular gathering places at the camp. The cabins and huts and tenting spaces allow for a great amount of seren-ity and solitude in this very beautiful old New England mountaintop forest. The huge main platform, covered by a great, leaf-shadow dappled white canvas tent which opens to the green forest on all sides if desired, is a very rare and special gathering area. Here the spriteliest of circles and the deepest of medi-tations is enhanced greatly by the intimacy with this forest whose history itself (being the Holy Moun-tain of the Shakers) makes the mythos of the gathering area very powerful for any group. Our commu-nity is hoping to return to Holy Mountain every year through generations."
Shaker & Anja, Co-Directors, Touchstone Farm, Center of Sacred Dance

Location

The Abode of the Message is located in the Berkshire Mountains in New Lebanon, NY, right on the border between New York and Massachusetts, 140 miles east of Boston and 140 north of New York City.

Contact us by phone or email, and we will be happy to answer all the questions you may have, arrange for a tour of the Mountain, or discuss in detail specific arrangements that you may wish.