The list "Communal and Utopian Societies" gives the years 1826-1836 for the Shaker Community at Sodus Bay, but the closing of the community was actually dragged out for a couple more years. On November 21, 1836, the Shakers agreed to sell the property to the Sodus Canal Company, led by William H. Adams, which planned to build a canal through it to connect Sodus Bay to the Erie Canal. Adams didn't need the entire property, but the Shakers were uncomfortable with the notion of "the World" passing so near them, so Adams agreed to buy them out. The deed was transferred on April 1, 1837. Adams then granted the Shakers another year to relocate the community to their new site in Groveland, in Livingston County, which they had bought in December 1836. The last two Shakers left Sodus Bay on June 4, 1838. Adams never succeeded in building his canal; to cover expenses, the property was later sold to the Fourierist group that established the Sodus Bay Phalanx there in 1844. (The property is now owned by Alasa Farms, but the remaining Shaker structures are open to visitors.)

See: Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., "The Sodus Shaker Community" (Lyons, N.Y.: Wayne County Historical Society, 1982). Wisbey was a history professor and archivist at Elmira College.

Scott Monje