Captain Dan Mather House
About This Tour
Inside the Mather House parlor, you will find three, early muraled walls depicting a lush landscape. Don’t forget to admire the detailed millwork and the painted eagles on the corner blocks!
The symmetrical primary facade of the Captain Dan Mather House retains a handsome surround at the entry door and a curious interpretation of a Palladian window at the second floor — the center window has a flat, rather than arched, top.
The Mather House
The Captain Dan Mather House was built between 1810-20 in Marlboro, Vermont. Major Timothy Mather (ca. 1757-1818) traveled to Marlboro from Suffield, Connecticut in 1773 when he was only sixteen years old. He spent the summer clearing land, and the following spring, returned with his family to officially purchase the one hundred acres of land on which he had labored. Timothy and his brother, Phineas, started multiple businesses on the property, including a tannery, currier, shoemaker, and various mills known as “Mather’s Mills.” Together, the brothers increased their wealth to support their families of ten children each. Captain Dan Mather (1795-1876), one of Timothy’s sons, apprenticed under
his father and worked to support the businesses on the property. Captain Dan Mather married Almira Miller (1800-48) in 1819, most likely soon after this home was built by his father to accommodate his expanding family. When the Mather family owned the house, multiple rooms had decorative painting, both stencils and murals.
The house was purchased in the 1950s by the Mumford family, who renovated the home and removed many of the painted walls. In 1969, Marlboro College (operational from 1946-2020) purchased the house and, in 1989, after serving as student housing, it became the residence of the College’s President. Under the College’s ownership, the house was known as the Mumford House. Upon the College’s closure in 2020, a preservation easement was established with the state of Vermont so that the walls would be legally protected against future changes. In 2021, the campus was purchased by Marlboro Music, a summer music program that had already been using the campus for several years.
The murals in the Captain Dan Mather house lack the mastery of detail and perspective seen in works of more sophisticated artists, but still have a spirit and charm of their own.
About the Art
The surviving murals in the Captain Dan Mather House were painted on plaster with a coarse brush. Murals once also covered the downstairs and upstairs hallways, and stenciled walls decorated three upstairs bedchambers. Fortuitously, painted wall scholar Edward Allen documented these walls in his book Early American Wall Painting (1926), describing the now-destroyed muraled and stenciled walls and including several photographs. Allen noted a village scene in the hallway, with a two-story tree painted in the stairway leading to the second floor. The upper hall, he wrote, was decorated with small trees. From his photographs, it has been determined that the stenciled walls were done in the style of Moses Eaton, Jr., but do not appear to be Eaton’s work.
Today, the only remaining painted walls in the Mather House can be found in the parlor, which were conserved by the Williamstown Art Conservator Center in 2005. The fireplace wall was once painted so that the murals would have continued around the entire perimeter of the room.
The murals in the Veritise House in Claremont, New Hampshire have a color palette and painted motifs — such as this painting of a tall, vining plant — similar to those in the Captain Dan Mather House.
About the Artist
Like many walls across New England, the remaining muraled parlor walls of the Captain Dan Mather House are unsigned, resulting in many myths surrounding the identity of the artist. Town legend knows the painter as the “Bernardston Spy,” who purportedly painted murals while traveling all over New England. These walls have also been connected to a Connecticut River Valley artist, Jared Jessup, who supposedly worked in the area between 1809-13.
When attempting to identify an artist, scholars of painted walls examine similarities to other painted walls all over New England. Painted wall expert Linda Lefko has recognized the resemblance of the Captain Dan Mather House murals to other, unattributed murals in the area. Walls in the Veritise House in Claremont, New Hampshire, are especially similar in design and layout to the surviving murals in the Mather House and most likely were painted by the same hand. While we cannot know this for sure, examining possible connections and similarities helps us understand the network of painted wall artists during this time.
Curiously, the blackwork curlicues and fences found in the Mather murals are elements found in many walls attributed to Deerfield, New Hampshire artist John Avery. However, the execution of these elements on the Mather walls lacks the skill seen in Avery’s work. Further research is needed to determine if and how these two artists are connected, or what sources might have inspired them both.