Musings

"Tis the gift to be simple,
tis the gift to be free."

These words to the Shaker hymn were written in 1848 by Joseph Brackett, an elder at the Shaker village at Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

I'm sure these words say different things to different people, but to me they are emblematic of the way we live here in Maine, and in particular, in Bath, and here at the Kennebec Company.

Our men and women who design our kitchens and build our cabinets are the proud inheritors of centuries' long traditions of skill, patience, and integrity that was required in the building of the world renowned ships here on the shores of the Kennebec River.

When you look at our work, you won't find the ornamentation that is often used to cover up poor quality or inferior wood. Our cabinets are built with a timeless, understated simplicity, in much the same way that fine furniture has been crafted for hundreds of years. By reducing unnecessary decorative elements, the spare simple elegance of the craftsmanship reveals itself. And it is the appreciation of the simple quality of the work, the beautifully matched, hand finished, wood grains and the purity of the design that will, to paraphrase the words of the hymn, free you, at least for a while, from the hectic whirlwind that is life in the twenty-first century.

It is this appreciation of this simple timeless elegance that drew actor Patrick Dempsey, someone who is widely known for his good taste and sense of style, to the Kennebec Company. Patrick's kitchen is simple but elegant. It is a mix of painted cabinetry, and varnished hand-planed pine cupboards that is befitting the 150 year old saltwater farm. It has a large central painted table with a thick slab wood top where family and friends can gather to cook and eat and talk.

Elder Joseph Brackett first joined the Shakers as a young man at Gorham, Maine where his father's farm became a Shaker settlement. My grandfather, Solomon Carson, was also a farmer in Gorham, Maine for seventy years. I spent many summers picking fruit and vegetables on his farm. Maybe it is something in the good Maine earth that is passed from generation to generation that keeps the spirit of those early Shakers alive here.