WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH!

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The Mather Homestead celebrates Women’s History Month!  We honor Bertha Floy Mather McPherson (1906 to 1993).  Bertha was the great great granddaughter of Deacon Joseph Mather (1753-1840) who built the Mather Homestead in 1778.  The Mather family was filled with important figures in history including Joseph Mather’s father, Dr. Rev. Moses Mather (1719-1806) , the first minister at the First Congregational Church of Darien and a fiery Patriot and champion of the Revolutionary Cause, and Stephen Tyng Mather (1867-1930), an avid conservationist and the first director of our National Park Service.  

Bertha was an important figure in her own right.  A native of Chicago, she was a 1928 graduate of Vassar College.  She went on to the Cambridge School of Landscape, a program operated by Smith College, earning a master’s degree in 1933, and became one of the first female architects in Connecticut.  She designed a house across the street from the Homestead for a family member which still stands on “the four corners” today.  Bertha summered in the Mather Homestead on Stephen Mather Road in Darien while growing up and then raised her family in the home, living there until her death in 1993.  She was the founder and president of the Darien Historical Society (now the Museum of Darien).

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