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Old Indian House Painting
© Memorial Hall Museum, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
George Washington Mark's Old Indian House
The Painting that Inspired the Basket
The Old Indian House in Deerfield, Massachusetts, was renowned for its role in the French and Indian attack on the town in February 1704. Attempts, in 1847 to save this oldest building in town stimulated one of the earliest recorded preservation movements in the United States. These efforts proved unsuccessful, and the house was razed in 1848, save for a few architectural fragments, including a door with a hole hacked in it during the 1704 Deerfield Raid. George Washington Mark painted the old "Indian House" just before it was demolished. His painting inspired the Old Indian House Raffia Basket, woven in 1903 by Sarah Cowles.