Coburn’s Tavern
About This Tour
This tour features murals attributed to J. D. Poor and includes the stair hall on the first and second floors and the large ballroom that occupies the entire third floor of the Tavern. Look for the references to the town of Pepperell in the ballroom’s murals!
The Tavern is a three-story brick building with a symmetrical, five-bay facade. At either end of the building is a two-story tall wing with a half-octagon footprint. The Tavern was built close to the road at what was once a busy crossroad between Boston and Keene, New Hampshire.
Coburn's Tavern
Coburn’s Tavern was constructed in 1812 by Zachariah Fitch in Pepperell, Massachusetts. Throughout its long history, it has been called many names, including the Old Brick Tavern, the Artemas Hemenway Tavern, the Zachariah Fitch Tavern, and the Hayes Tavern. The entire third floor of this simple Federal brick building was once a ballroom.
Pepperell’s former nickname, “Tavern Center,” indicates that Coburn’s Tavern was not the only commercial establishment of this kind in the area. Located on what is now Route 119, the town became a prominent stop in the early nineteenth century for stagecoach lines traveling all over New England. Hemenway Tavern specifically served as a point of respite for those traveling on the stage line from Boston to Keene, New Hampshire. In 1831 alone, 15,000 passengers traveled on this line.
In 1868, the tavern was purchased by Irish immigrant Patrick J. Hayes and has remained in the family since. The tavern is listed as the Zachariah Fitch Tavern in Massachusetts’s Cultural Resource Information System (or MACRIS) and as Coburn’s Tavern on drawings in the collections of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).
Coburn’s Tavern was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1937. This drawing of the front facade was made at that time. Source: Library of Congress.
This tree is typical of the trees found in the Coburn’s Tavern murals, but its painting style is not associated with any known artist.
About the Artist
These murals in the tavern are unsigned, with scholars previously attributing them to itinerant muralist Rufus Porter (1782-1884), as well as another painter, Nathan Thayer (ca. 1781-1830). While it is difficult to confirm definitively the artist behind the creation of these walls, updated scholarship informs us that the tavern’s murals, particularly those in the ballroom, include characteristics and elements often associated with Porter’s nephew, Jonathan D. Poor (1807-45). While Porter’s and Poor’s works share many similarities, the two artists developed unique styles and motifs throughout their mural painting careers.
This short stair leads up to a gallery, or balcony, where musicians once played for dancers in the ballroom below.
The inclusion of the Prescott Guards in the mural suggests the walls were painted after 1820. Also note the sign on the tall post, just behind the soldiers.
About the Murals
The murals are found on all of the tavern’s three floors. While the murals in the first and second-floor stair hall have been overpainted, those in the tavern’s ballroom on the third floor remain largely untouched.
Adjacent to a white Federal-style house, an element found on many Poor walls, is a rarer motif: a signpost with writing. Another scholar, Nina Fletcher, has stated in previous works that it reads “Cob Inn.” While unclear, this could be a reference to one of the building’s former names, Coburn’s Tavern, possibly in use at the time it was painted.
Standing in front of the signpost is one of the mural’s most distinctive features: a line of militiamen wearing the uniform of the Prescott Guards. Organized in 1820 and named in honor of Pepperell resident and Bunker Hill commander Col. William Prescott, the Prescott Guards served as an independent volunteer militia. The presence of the Prescott Guards helps date this mural to sometime after 1820.
The presence of the Prescott Guards within the mural not only speaks to people and events within Pepperell but is also an illustration of the relationship between the Prescott Guards and this local tavern. In fact, this room, which can accommodate 100 dancing couples, hosted balls for the militiamen until 1857. Depictions of local militias also appear in murals in the Milton Gay House at Fairbanks, Maine, and the Daniel Carr House in North Haverhill, New Hampshire.