Built around 1825, the East Family Wash House has a stone walk to its doorstep.  The whole community's laundry was done in this building.  The Shakers of Pleasant Hill were the first people to use horses as a form of power.  Shakers would hook a horse up to a tread mill in the back of the building.  The tread mill rotated some wheels.   The wheels made the arms inside a very very large barrel go around in circles.   The clothes were dropped into boiling water and washed in this big barrel.

Here are some pails that were used in the wash house.

This is a sample of the irons the Shakers used when ironing their clothes.  The irons had weighted wheels on the bottom of them.  It was a lot easier to iron using rollers than pushing a heavy, hot iron on the clothes.

Shakers warmed their irons on the above iron stove.