Watervliet's historic 1848 Shaker meetinghouse has been restored and is used for public events, such as concerts.

The Shakers, who believed that spiritual ties were more significant than blood relationships, organized the community at Watervliet into four large "families," each of which formed an independent, self-supporting unit with its own buildings, although all members worshiped in the same meetinghouse.

[2] In the early 19th-century, a custody battle involving a father who had gone to live at Watervleit with his minor child was widely publicized.

[4] It is a plain, wooden building decorated according to the Shaker rule that "Meetinghouses should be painted white without, and of a bluish shade within.

[4] The austere interior provided a large floor space for the dancing that was a central part of Shaker worship.

[2] They purchased a limited range of goods from outsiders, principally iron, which they worked into hardware and tools in their own workshops.

[2] Prior to this time, individuals saved vegetable seeds from the previous year, or traded with neighbors.