Independent, civic minded, astute investor, preservationist, philanthropist - these are all terms that could be used to describe Mary Thacher.
Born in 1868, “Miss Mary” as she was known locally, was the sixth of seven children and a descendent of Anthony Thacher, one of the original settlers of Yarmouth. While they lived much of the year at 51 Mt. Vernon Street on Beacon Hill, the heart of the family was always at their homestead on Strawberry Lane in Yarmouth Port. It was here that the Thachers spent every summer.
The Thacher home is on the left, Bangs Hallet House is on the right.
She and her younger sister Martha attended Miss May’s Finishing School in Boston. Both became accomplished pianists, and Mary always loved sports. She was very athletic. When at the Cape, she swam every day, rode her bicycle and played golf on the family’s nine hole course located behind their home. Mary especially loved Harvard football and seldom missed a game when her brother or nephew was playing. She traveled widely.
Mary was a very independent woman. When her father died, he left each of his five living children equal shares of his estate. This was very unusual for the time - in those days it was customary to leave the bulk of the estate to the male heirs. With her inheritance, she began to make some astute investments. When the stock market crashed in 1929, she held onto her investments and came out way ahead as time went on.
A portrait of Miss Mary.
Known for her thrift, if she found out that the sugar she bought in Hyannis was sold elsewhere for less she would have her driver return to the store and exchange it for the cheaper price. However, she also quietly and generously helped a number of families in town, paying college tuition or medical bills for those who couldn’t afford it.
When their parents retired to Yarmouth Port, Mary and her sister, Martha, moved along with them. After their father died in 1900, Mary, her mother and her sister made several important gifts to the town. Thacher Shore Road was given in her father’s memory. Gray’s Beach was also their gift, as well as Corporation Beach in Dennis. The sisters cared for their mother until her death in 1919. Four years later Martha died and Mary decided that she wanted a home of her own. She bought the Colonel John Thacher house, located on the corner of Thacher Lane and Route 6A.
Mary became very interested in antiques and immersed herself in books to learn more. Seventeenth and eighteenth century furnishings were out of style and could be purchased at reasonable prices. Mary began scouring antique shops in Boston and New York, as well as on the Cape. She bought what appealed to her, mostly American pieces made in New England, and the Thacher House provided a place to house her collection.
In the 1930s the Winslow Crocker House, built in the late eighteenth century and located in West Barnstable, was for sale. The interior detailing of this house was superior to most 1780s houses located on the Cape, but the house was in disrepair. Mary decided that this architectural gem should be saved, so she bought it.
After her purchase, Mary relocated the house to Yarmouth Port on the vacant lot next to the Colonel John Thacher house. The post and beam structure was taken down piece by piece, each piece was photographed, numbered and then moved to the new location.
Digging the basement for the Winslow Crocker House.
A full basement was dug and the house was reassembled over the basement. Electricity, central heat, a kitchen and baths were added to make the house livable. The fireplace in the keeping room had been destroyed so Mary had it rebuilt to reflect what was appropriate for 1780. The house became the setting for Mary’s growing collection of antiques, and she developed plans to leave the Winslow Crocker House and the Colonel John Thacher House to Historic New England. She wanted these special places to be preserved and enjoyed by future generations.
Interior of the Winslow Crocker House.
Devotion to the town of Yarmouth was inherited from her parents and shared by her siblings, but Mary Thacher was the only one to spend most of her life in the town. Riding her bicycle regularly, she knew most everyone on the northside. She was a member of the Friday Club and most Sundays would be found worshiping at the New Church in Yarmouth Port on the common.
Since she never learned to drive, she employed a driver. In 1956 at the age of 88, she and her driver left Yarmouth Port one morning in Mary’s Buick station wagon. At the corner of Willow Street and Route 28 in Hyannis, a dump truck loaded with stones ran the red light and plowed into the right side of the station wagon where Mary was sitting. She was hospitalized with broken ribs. A few days later she contracted pneumonia and died, leaving an estate worth $28,000,000 in today’s dollars. Her will included many gifts to charities and schools as well as scholarships for Harvard, MIT, and Boston Univeristy bound students from Yarmouth. In 1956 the family donated the Bangs Hallet House and the golf course, now our Nature Trails, to the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth.
Like the Thachers that came before her, Mary’s heart and soul were always on Cape Cod. She had a strong desire to save the things that everyone loves here. A true preservationist, she did what she could to preserve the historic and scenic beauty of this special place.
